7 Essential Tips to Host A Wine Tasting

Wine is a social experience and should be treated as such. Today on Inspire Wine, Maria will provide us with the 70 essential tips on hosting your very own wine tasting. Whether you're a connoisseur or a beginner, you'll gain some valuable information to use on your next wine soiree. Hello and welcome to my kitchen. Today we're going to be talking about how to host a wine tasting party and you are not going to want to miss these 7 simple tips. So before you choose the wines, bring out the glasses, cut up the appetizers, the first thing you need to know about how to host a wine party is know your guests. Some people want to be relaxed and try a few wines. Keep it simple. Others are more competitive and seek out specific wine knowledge. Get a little bit more complicated. Now that you know who's coming to the party, it's time to choose the wines. There's a number of different themes that you can use to choose your wines. One might be varietal. For example, you could have 4 Marquettes, or 4 Cabernets, or 4 La Cressettes, or 4 Pinot Noirs, whatever variety you might choose. Another way is to have your wine tasting organized by region. And this is an example. These are all Wisconsin Ledge wines right here from our own wine region. Another way to organize your wine party is by style. For example, maybe you want to just choose a number of Rosés and serve those. And last, you might want to organize your wine tasting by price. Wines less than $10, wine 15 or above, wine 20 or above, whatever price range you're thinking. Usually, 3 to 4 wines is a good number of wines to serve. Tip number 3, it's time to gather your supplies. So, choose the right glasses. Maybe it's a red glass, or maybe it's a multi-tasting glass, or maybe it's a champagne flute. Have something to write on, note cards and pencils, so people can take notes. A dump bucket, so somebody can discard the wine that they don't want to drink. And for those of you who want to challenge, paper bags. And that would be to hide the bottles in so you can't see the labels and you can guess at what you're sampling. Tip number 4, it's nice to serve some light snacks so people can cleanse their palate. But remember, these should be light snacks. You don't want the food to overpower the wine. The wine should be the star of a wine tasting party. So, what I have here are some light crackers with no flavoring on them, and then just a light-bodied cheese. Tip number 5, make sure to serve the wines in the correct order so that the flavors don't interfere or overpower each other. You want to start with sparkling, then white, rosé and red. And if you have a dessert wine, that should be at the end. You want to go light-bodied wine to full-bodied wine, and you want to go dry to sweet. Tip number 6, keep it taste-oriented. Remember, the goal of this party is to create a new experience, new wines, and find something new that you like. So, start out with smaller portions. Make sure to cleanse your palate in between samples, so water or crackers. And then, if you find a wine you enjoy, pour yourself a little extra later on. Tip number 7, things to avoid. Make sure to invite the right number of people to your party so you can avoid crowded spaces. Also, avoid strong smells and scents in the room, so don't bring out the scented candles. And avoid overpouring. Like we said, it's a tasting, so just pour enough initially for a sample. An extra tip, and this goes along with knowing your guests, is make sure no one has any pet allergies. Otherwise, Buster isn't invited. And if you have any questions, just ask. So, now you have 7, actually 8 tips on how to host the perfect wine tasting party. Now is the time to take action, to plan your next wine tasting, and to use these 7 tips to host an unforgettable wine event. If you enjoyed this episode of Inspire Wine, subscribe to our channel, give us a thumbs up, share this video, and follow us on social media. I'm winemaker Steve, cheers, and we'll see you next time.