How to Have a Summer Wine Tasting Party

Summer is a great time to have a wine tasting party. You and your guests can be outside to enjoy the wonderful warm evening air. There are two times and ways that you can have a wine tasting party. First, you may want to do a pre-dinner event. The second way would be an evening that includes dinner. If you wanted to you could also have a dessert wine tasting party. We'll cover that in a future post since that's an entirely different presentation.

With a pre-dinner event, you can hold it late afternoon into early evening. Make sure your guests know this will not include dinner. But you will provide plenty of appetisers. Of course, a dinner event will start in early evening and continue until after dinner is served.

One bottle of wine will typically serve 6 people in wine tasting. Each glass for tasting will not be filled with as much as wine as you would normally. You will put about 2-4 ounces of wine in each glass. Enough for only 2-3 drinks of wines. Pick 4-6 different varieties of wine for your tasting party. You don't want to confuse your guests with too many varieties.

The wines you chose for tasting can be both red and white varieties. You may also wish to limit the party to just reds or whites. Alternately, you can focus in one just one variety, like Merlots, and pick 4-6 different bottles of Merlot in different price ranges and from different vineyards or wine makers. Be sure to let your guests know in advance what your theme will be.

You will need to have extra bottles of each of your wine choices so that guests can have more of their favorites when the tasting time is over. In between different wines, provide plenty of water for your guests to cleanse their pallets. Provide food to taste with the wines as well.

Make sure you are familiar with winetasting and the terms used so that you can educate your guests who are unaware of proper wine tasting. Then relax and enjoy your party. A wine tasting party should be fun for you as the host or hostess as well.