Wine Tasting Party Planning

Looking for a good excuse to have a party? Why not host a wine tasting party? It's a fun and not to difficult theme for a get together. It takes a little planning and some decisions, but an interesting and informative way to have a party.

You have some decisions to make first. What kind of wine tasting party do you want to have? A full sit-down dinner not only involves a complete menu, but also a complement of the wines that will go with the food.

Maybe just an appetizer party is better for you. Then you can choose which types of wines to specialize in for the tasting. Whites only, reds only, or a collection from a particular vineyard.

A wine and cheese party is a different event altogether. The kinds of cheeses that you want to pair with your wines will make a difference in how each tastes. Wine compliments the tastes of various cheeses, and vice versa. So you want to do your homework and know which wines work with which cheese.

How about a dessert party? Then you want to serve lighter and sweeter wines with sweet foods. If you are so inclined, champagne makes a great choice to serve with desserts.

Hosting a wine tasting party can be educational for both you and your guests. Discovering that wine really does make food taste better is a treat for everyone. Plus, you each get to decide which wines you do like.

Hosting a Wine Tasting Party

During the winter months, wine tasting parties can be a fun way to gather with friends. With the big holidays over and the dreary days of winter upon us, a nice theme for a get-together is wine tasting.

You'll want to think about the type of party to have. It can be a specific variety of wines, like only reds, or only whites, or maybe a dessert party for sweeter wines. Will you include a dinner with the wine tasting or just serve appetizers?

If you want to focus on just certain types of wines, you'll want to match your menu to those wines. Wine enhances the flavor of food and vice versa. Typically, white wines work best with lighter fare, such as fish or chicken dishes and salads. Red wines are stronger in flavor so they go better with red meats and heartier foods. Pairing wine and food is simple when you follow some basics.

Then you'll want to brush up on your wine tasting terms. Learning the right terms for what you will be doing with wine tasting will also help you and your guests enjoy the party more.

If you know someone who is especially good at wine tasting, ask them to be the group leader and help teach all the guests how to properly taste wine. If not, learn how wine tasting functions yourself so you can be the group leader.

More than anything, enjoy yourself. The whole idea behind wine is enjoyment, so go ahead and plan a wine tasting party for the shear enjoyment.

Pairing Wine and Cheese

The month of August at All About Wine is all about pairing wine and cheese. Which wines go good with which cheeses? Which cheeses to serve with which wines? What should I know about pairing wine and cheese?

The delectable tastes of great cheese goes wonderfully with the delightful tastes of wine. For all of us, choosing wines is all about our own enjoyment and mating that enjoyment with food is always an additional treat. So All About Wine is sharing that enjoyment with cheeses.

If you think cheese is just about American slices, then you need to start with the primer. Then take your wine and cheese pairings up a notch. Stay tuned to All About Wine for the next regularly scheduled program, a review of a good book to learn lots more.

First and foremost, wine and cheese pairing is all about taste. Go for the wines and cheeses that you enjoy and do some taste testing yourself. Find the combinations that cause you to say "wow."

Have a Dessert Wine Tasting Party

Getting ready for summer you can chose a warm evening to have a dessert wine-tasting party. These will be held from after-dinner into the evening, as long as you and your guests want. The party could start at 8 o'clock and continue until midnight, or something similar.

Dessert wines are typically sweet and served chilled. A bottle will usually serve about 6 people for wine tasting. When you pour wine for tasting you only pour about 2-4 ounces, which is less than a standard wine serving. Make sure you familiarize yourself with proper wine tasting techniques and wine tasting terms. This way you can help to educate your guests who aren't as knowledgeable as you will be.

Four to six different varieties of dessert wine is usually enough for a wine tasting party. More than that and you will over whelm your guests. You also have the option of choosing different varieties, or just choose one variety and pick bottles from different vineyards and wine-makers.

Your dessert options can be as elaborate as you want. Several dessert choices are best. But, cut them or divide them into smaller than normal portions. That way your guests can also be dessert-tasting as well as wine tasting. Make sure you provide plenty of water for your guests in between tasting different wines. They need to cleanse their pallets.

Alternately, you may want to keep the sweets simple. Great chocolates make a wonderful way to serve sweets with dessert wine tasting. Provide a variety of sweetness levels in the chocolate as well. Some very dark less sweet chocolates, some milk chocolates, even some white chocolates can make a beautiful dessert presentation with very little work on your part.

The most important part of your dessert wine-tasting party is for you to enjoy yourself. Drinking wine is all about enjoyment after all, so make sure you include yourself in the fun.

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.