Guest Post by Roberto Lopez
Ah, wine. Whether you’re just cultivating your wine knowledge or you’re a seasoned, wine-loving expert with a cornucopia of adjectives at the ready like “leathery” and “dark berry”, a wine tasting party is a great way to mix up your entertaining game at home.
Wine tasting parties can be casual events, despite what visions might pop into your head when you picture an evening like this. Yes, you absolutely can go all out and rent expensive glassware, hire a sommelier, chef, and musical entertainment. Or, you can keep it casual and go potluck-style where all of your guests bring a bottle or two of wine for the group to taste. Wine tasting parties are flexible and should look and feel like the host—that’s you!
The Basics
Regardless of what your personal style is, there are a few things that will make your wine tasting a success:
At least one corkscrew. Probably a few, to be safe. That way, you can have a helper open wine with you.
Good quality glassware. It not only looks pretty, but good glassware helps to bring out the best qualities in the wines you’re tasting. While there are many different types of wine glasses, some great all-around options can work for all different kinds of wine. If you don’t want to invest in a set of nice wine glasses, consider renting from an event company.
A decanter or two. This will allow you to decant one wine while pouring your current one for tasting. There are a lot of schools of thought from different sommeliers on how long to decant the wine for, but on the conservative end, sommeliers like Amanda McCrossin recommend no more than 25-30 minutes.
Neutral, simple palate cleansers. This should be something like water crackers or simple bread. Even things with butter or salt can distort your palate.
A bucket for getting rid of unwanted wine. Depending on your crowd, this might be considered sacrilege, but hey. Better to be safe!
Plenty of water. Make sure your guests stay hydrated.
Helpers to pour wine with you. If you have 8-10 people, it can take several minutes to make it around a room or table. Much easier with two people!
Glass charms or wine glass markers. If you’re going to be mingling around, these can be handy to make sure you do not have to wash glasses every two minutes, but if you’ll be seated, it’s probably not necessary.
Chillers for white wines. Ensuring your wines are served at the right temperature is critical to getting a good read on them.
Pen and paper for each guest. Making tasting notes is fun and can be helpful to your guests the next time they’re pondering their wine selections. Encourage them to take notes on paper and take a photo of their notes at the end of the evening, so they have it to reference on their phones.
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