How To Host A Wine Tasting Party

I recently hosted a blind wine tasting party for my mom's birthday, which was a blast! If you're a wine lover, a blind tasting party is a great way to celebrate a birthday (or just because)!

Organize your blind tasting by deciding what kinds of wine to taste. For example, you may decide to taste one varietal (one grape variety). Another idea is to choose all regional wines, only sweet wines, reds, or whites. For my mom's party, we asked that each guest bring a bottle of red wine (any varietal). This was a great way to find out what each person's favorite red wine was, too. It's always fun to find new favorites!

As The guests arrived, I took their bottle and wrapped it with burlap and wire to cover the label and any other giveaways as to what the wine was. I also labeled each bottle with a number with a sharpie to keep track of which wine was which (on a separate piece of paper to correspond with the bottles), and so guests knew which "number" they were tasting for scoring/guessing purposes.

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Palate cleansers, such as bread, crackers and cheeses help neutralize the taste of one wine before tasting the next. In addition to the simple palate "cleansers", I made brie, strawberry, basil and honey "bruschetta", tuna dip, veggie cups, and a tri-tip sandwich station. To spice up the food labels to fit in with the theme, I used wine corks as the label holders and wrote on cardstock. 

{DIY Chalkboard cheese plate using an old frame from my grandmother}

Each guest got a pencil and a scoring sheet to record their impressions of the wines, as well as to guess what the varietal for each was. 

I also designed this sheet for guests to take home with their own notes:

The prize for the most correct varietals guessed got a nice bottle of wine. 

Hopefully you’ll come away from blind tasting discovering a new favorite. 

Bottoms Up!