Hosting a Wine-tasting Party
A good wine-tasting party will have everyone toasting you.
If you love giving parties but don't love cooking, search no longer -- try a wine-tasting party. All you'll need are a few bottles of vino, some wineglasses, and a group of wannabe wine snobs.
Step 1: Setting the Scene
Before your guests arrive, assemble the following on your dining-room table:
- One corkscrew
- One wineglass per person
- Drinking water
- Plastic cups
- Paper and pencil for each person
- Two or three bottles each of red and white wine. There are a whole slew of reasonably priced wines available. Ask the manager of a reputable wine store for advice and recommendations.
Step 2: The Guests Arrive
Gather your guests, display your wines, and tell everyone they should spit out the wine (that's what the plastic cups are for) once they've experienced the flavor. Otherwise, everyone will be drunk within half an hour, and no one will care what the wine tastes like. The real drinking can commence later in the evening.
Step 3: Serving the Wine
Red wines should be served at room temperature, whites at a slightly cooler temperature. Don't over-refrigerate white wine because this dulls the taste; use a bucket full of ice and water to chill the wine to its ideal temperature. It's best to let the wines breathe a bit before tasting them, so open the bottles a few minutes ahead of time.
Step 4: The Tasting
Pour a small amount of wine into each person's glass (just enough for one sip) and have the group examine the wine. Notice its color. It should be bright and clear if it's a red, pale to golden yellow if it's a white. Write down what you see.
Then, holding the stem, swirl the wine around the bowl of the glass. Smell it. You're finding the "nose" of the wine. Write down whatever scents you detect immediately. Don't worry about the words you use -- this isn't scientific. Does the nose on the white wine remind you of mint or lemon? When you sniff the red, are you reminded of cedar or fruit? This first impression will be important when you compare it to the wine's taste.
When you finally taste the wine, Judy Ridgway, coauthor (along with Francis Ford Coppola) of The Wine-tasting Class (Clarkson Potter), recommends sucking it through your teeth to imbibe a little air with the liquid. This releases the wine's flavors. What you taste is the wine's "palate." Have everyone write down their initial reactions, then spit out the wine. The flavor that's left is the "finish." How long does it stay in your mouth? Write this down too. The longer the finish lingers, the better the wine.
After each wine has had its moment in the sun, have each person rate the various bottles in order of preference. Tabulate the results, determine the crowd favorite, and break out some hors d'oeuvres. It's time to drink what's left!