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Wine Tasting Party Ideas

Sonia Nair
A wine tasting party can be real fun, if organized in the proper manner. Here are some tips for organizing such parties.
Like any other party, careful planning is inevitable for wine tasting parties too. You need an assortment of wines, wine glasses, tasting notes, and matching food. The main activity in a wine party is tasting different types of wine and recording the findings. The tasters have to note down the taste, aroma, acidity, and texture of individual wines.
So, the basic requirement is different types of wines. You need wine glasses to serve the wine. The guests can note down the taste of wines in tasting notes. You have to provide them with spittoon, as some guests may require such arrangement. As we all know, a little bit of planning can be of great help in organizing such parties.

Inviting Guests

Make a list of guests and send them invitations. Make sure that the guests are of legal drinking age. It will be better, if you invite people, who have interest in wines and wine tasting. Select a theme for the party, related to the types of wine to be poured during the party.
You may either opt for the different types of wine from a specific region, or foreign wines. You may also try different versions of a specific type of wine, like white wine, red wine, or Italian wine. You can either inform the guests through telephone or send them invitation cards. You can make invitation cards in the shape of wine bottles or wine glasses.

Selection of Wines

If you have a good knowledge about wines and wine tasting, you can select the wines, on your own.
Otherwise, seek help from wine experts and fix the party theme, which is nothing other than the types of wines to be served during the party. You may either get the whole lot of wine required for the party, on your own; or ask each guest to bring a specific type of wine. Make sure that you have at least six different types of wines for the party.

Other Requirements

An important requirement for the party is drinking equipment or wine accessories, which include wine glasses, lint-free white cloth for cleaning the glasses, room temperature water for cleaning glasses or for drinking, and spittoon for spitting wine.
Tasting notes can be distributed to the guests, who may wish to note down the wine tastes. Another important requirement is the matching food. It will be better to serve food before wine tasting, as the food may spoil the flavor of wine, if consumed together.
Apart from that, tasting wine with empty stomach is also not advisable. While tasting wine, you can serve the guests with neutral palate cleansers, like unsalted crackers, bread, and munchies. After wine tasting, you can serve other finger foods, like cheese and chocolates.

Wine Tasting

In order to get the right taste, wines have to be served at correct temperatures, that can vary with different types. If you are not conversant with this, you may either bring some wine expert or act as per his instructions.
In general, you have to serve sweet wines before dry wines, as the former can spoil the taste of latter. Similarly, white wines have to be served before red wines. Blush wines and rose wines can be served in between white and red wines.
Wine tasting involves three steps. The first step is to determine the color, clarity, and transparency.
The second step involves sniffing the wines and checking their fragrance.
The third and most important part of wine tasting is tasting itself. Take a sip and roll it over the tongue, so that the body, sweetness, tartness, bitterness, and fruitiness of the wine can be found out.
These are some of the basic requirements for a fun-filled wine tasting party. You can make it more enjoyable by adding some party games and gifts. There are serious wine tasting parties, which are more focused on the methods and types of wine tasting. Such parties can be arranged with the help of experienced wine tasters.