Tips for preparing a successful wine tasting event

Wine tasting events are a great way to celebrate almost any occasion and those have become a growing trend in recent years. One of the key reasons for their popularity is that they often offer a fun and relaxed environment where wine enthusiasts can meet and explore different wines.

The finding.wine website, besides having a great stock of wines, it has a wonderful wine club, where its members can participate in the activities and events organized by its directors.

These events mainly focus on asking questions about wines, experimenting and tasting new wines, as well as having fun. However, you may be surprised to find that wine tasting events can also be instructive and didactic in a pleasant way to entertain yourself and make new friends.

With little planning and creativity, it's easy to host a wine tasting event that will surely impress both your guests and even yourself. There you have some tips that are sure to make your wine tasting event a smashing success.

Basics for wine tasting

To carry out a wine tasting event, you must know how to do it properly.  In fact, it would be a good idea to discuss these steps with your guests, being able to give and hear some suggestions or tips. Down below, there is a list of pretty standard steps for wine tasting.

• Check if the wine is clear or has a deep color.
• Swirl the wine to release the aromas.
• Smell the aromas to stimulate your palate.
• Drink the wine and inhale air through your mouth.
• Swallow the wine (or spit it out if you have a lot of wine to taste).

Well, now that you know these steps, let’s get into the tips for hosting a wine tasting event.

Tip #1: Choose the event’s main theme

The first step for having a wine tasting event is deciding the event’s main theme. There is no limit in the themes you may select. You can choose the theme to be a specific country, and thus featuring wines from that country. Another option would be to select a theme based on the types of wines or holidays. Regardless of what you select, your event theme will definitely set the tone for the entire reunion.

Tip #2: Give a proper welcome to your guests

As the host of your wine tasting event, you must be there to greet all of your guests as they arrive. It may be a good idea to give each person a brief "description" of the spaces in the room where the event will be held, so they can easily find restrooms, wine service, drinking water, trash cans, and any other site where guests would go or use during the event.

Tip #3: Make sure your guests get to know each other and share socially, while enjoying the event.

One of the best experiences of wine tasting events occurs when guests can integrate in the whole group, learning about wines while enjoying themselves socially. In fact, wine tasting events are excellent settings for making new friends with at least one hobby in common, love for wines, of course. Also, make sure you don't invite too many people or too few people (read Tip #7 below). You'll want to have a good number of familiar faces mixed in with a few new ones.

Tips 4: Choose wines with similar prices

When choosing wines to use for your wine tasting event, it’s important to remember that the wines you choose must maintain a similar range of price between them, since keeping it similar, generally means that the wines share some characteristics between them, which will turn the attention of your guests to the quality of each wine, allowing them make a proper evaluation. This will be a nice touch that your guests will surely appreciate.

Tips 5: Administrate the number of wine glasses to use according to the number of guests

This may seem very basic, but still make sure you have enough glasses of wine for everyone at the reunion. The key here is to have extra glasses in stock, in case of any accident.

Tips 6: Prepare yourself enough, do some research

Since you will be hosting the wine tasting event, you should be able to answer some basic questions that your guests may have about the wines they are tasting. You don't need to know all the facts about each wine offered, but being able to answer common questions for your guests will definitely help them enjoy your wine tasting event.

Tips 7: Distribute your invitations wisely

You need to consider how many people you want to invite. This will make your wine tasting event a success because the right number of guests will enhance the social element and at the same time make it enjoyable for everyone without depleting your available resources for the event.

On average, wine tasting events tend to have an approximate number of 15 guests. When deciding how much wine you should buy for your event, keep in mind that for tasting purposes and for any sharing or toasting between all guests, an average of four ounces of wine should be available for each guest.

Tips 8: Buckets ready for unfinished samples for the wine discarded by the tasters

The tasters sometimes cannot finish all the samples of the tested wines. It's a good idea to have empty jugs or buckets for posible unfinished wine. Also, be sure to keep a pitcher with room temperature water next to each dump bucket to allow guests to rinse their glasses after unused wine has been disposed.           

Tips 9: Provide enough bottled water for guests

Although it may not seem like it, wine tasting can make you thirsty. For this reason, it helps to have bottled water on hand. Bottled water can also be useful for guests who want to rinse their mouths between wine samples.

Tips 10: Have fun and relax

Hosting wine tasting events can be fun. It will be something memorable not just for you, but also for your guests. If you follow these 10 tips, I’m sure you will have a good time, as well as your guests. Have fun with the event, because by the end of it, your guests will be pleased, and so do you.  Happy toast!

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