
It’s a given that entertaining should involve wine. Maybe there’s a special bottle that you’ve planned your menu around, or perhaps some easy-drinking wine to serve as a backdrop for conversation.
But if you want to make wine the guest of honor, why not host a blind tasting? This structured set up allows guests to geek out about what’s in their glasses.
Here’s how the wine tasting works: Everyone tastes through a flight of mystery wines, one at a time. Guests are encouraged to discuss each wine as they go. If your guests are relatively knowledgeable, they can make educated guesses about the identity of each pour, which can add a competitive element. If it’s the first blind tasting for most attendees, it’s fine to keep talk to things like appearance, aroma and structure. At the end of the tasting, reveal the bottles and further the discussion.
The following pages will illustrate how to set up your tasting party, which includes a few bites to savor and flights to serve.
Tools of the Trade
Here are the ingredients you need to get your party started. Just add wine.
Bottle Bags
These ensure that labels and producers don’t sway tasters. Paper bags are fine; just number them to keep track of what’s what. If you plan to throw blind tastings often, you might want to invest in a set of number- or letter-embroidered cloth bags.
Glasses
Everyone should have a fresh glass for each wine. They don’t have to match, but ideally, serve reds in red glasses and whites in white glasses.
Spittoons
At a house party, people might want to finish each pour, and that’s fine. But you should have large, opaque vessels and smaller personal ones for those who want to spit.
Quality Control
Before guests arrive, ensure that your wines are at the appropriate temperature (41˚–45˚F for sparkling; 45˚–55˚ for whites; 56˚–65˚F for reds). Also, taste each one to make sure they’re not tainted, damaged, cooked or corked.
Paper and Pens (or Pencils)
These allow tasters to take notes. If you want to be really organized, you can print out numbered sheets. However, small notebooks or index cards will do just fine.
A Fact Sheet
When you do the big reveal about which wines have been tasted, you’ll also want to provide a little information, like the geography/soils of the vineyards, what the wine is aged in and for how long.
Water Pitcher and Glasses
You want to keep guests hydrated.
Food
If your guests are not spitting, you want something in their stomachs to absorb all that wine.
1On the Menu
2Same Region, Different Varieties
3Different Variety and Region, Same Style
4Same Region, Same Variety