It’s well known that a bit of alcohol can oil the wheels in social situations, and the event is interactive, exciting and usually very interesting.
Organising your own is easier than it might sound and, with a bit of planning, can cost as little as £10 per person. A bargain for a full and fun night!
Tip # 1 – Ask each guest to bring an assigned bottle of wine
Your overall tasting night would ideally take the form of several mini tastings, with each consisting of three or four different wines of one particular theme. So, if there are nine of you attending, that’s three mini tastings of three bottles.
A theme can be anything that you want, such as comparing the red wines from one country, a particular grape variety produced in three different countries, or three different brands of the same style of wine.
Work out what themes you want to explore and ask each person to bring a related bottle, otherwise you may end up with 10 different bottles of ‘on-offer’ Sauvignon Blanc.
Tip #2 – Budget.
In something of a humorous gesture, a friend once bought a £3 Tetra Pak carton of Rioja to a tasting evening. He was surprised that, by the end of the night, the £3 Rioja had been tasted, then decanted and tasted again, and also tried in various wine glasses ranging from stemless to Riedel.
A tasting isn’t about expensive wine, but more to contrast and compare the differences between each of them. To ensure everyone spends fairly and that any comparisons are across wines of a broadly similar quality, set an appropriate budget for each bottle purchased. A nice round figure is £10.
Tip #3 - Glassware and props
At this point you may be thinking, hang on, three glasses per person multiplied by nine people equals more glasses than I have at home. The good news is that high street merchants like Majestic, and pretty much all of the major supermarkets offer free glass loan (with a fee only payable if any glasses get broken).
In terms of props, white A4 paper is useful as a table/place mat for each guest.
The plain white surface also allows you to clearly contrast the colour and appearance of each wine against it.
If you have an atlas or map of the world handy, or can make one viewable on a device, it can help people understand why a wine tastes the way it does. For example, tasting ripe fruit flavours in a wine produced in a warm climate versus leaner fruit from a cooler climate country.
Tip #4 – Food and Water
It makes good sense to lay on a few light bites to soak up the alcohol, and this can be as simple as breadsticks and crisps.
If you want to add a further dimension to your night and attempt some food and wine matching you can be more adventurous and lay on some cheeses and meats.
If the food is to be more of a focus you can once again spread the cost and allocate a particular item to each guest, adjusting down the amount spent on the wine accordingly.
Jugs of water are also a good idea, not least for keeping you hydrated, but also to rinse out glasses and cleanse your palate between wines.
Tip #5 – Have fun!
The most important tip of all. If you can’t taste the difference between any of the wines (which may happen towards the end of the night if you’re finishing off the bottles), it doesn’t matter at all, just have fun!
Cheers!