If you are hosting a wine tasting for beginners, wine tasting cards are great for keeping you organized and adding structure to the evening. Take the time to prepare your cards, making sure you have accurate information about each wine variety that you and your guests will be sampling. A wine tasting card should specify the type of wine, the vineyard that produced it, the year of production and a brief description of the wine (similar to what can be found on the label of the bottle). If you want to make your cards more creative, use the internet to find interesting facts to add. On the other side of the card, have sections for your guests to fill in, recording their impressions of the wine and commenting on its appearance, aroma, flavor and any other observations they want to make. You could also have a scoring section, for each guest to give the wine a mark out of ten, which you can compare at the end of the evening.
If you fancy something that is a bit more of a challenge, offer a blind wine tasting. This means that each wine is sampled without any details revealed (i.e. cover the label of the bottle with a piece of paper and simply number it). You still give your guests blind wine tasting score cards, but the idea is to use the information on the card to try to identify each wine. Each guest has to match the wine tasting score card to the wine; at the end of the game, the wines are revealed. It is a nice idea to have a prize for the person who correctly identifies the most wines, such as a bottle of quality wine or a book about wine.
Apart from having your wine tasting score cards prepared, there are a few things you can do to create a great wine tasting event. Set up some tasting tables covered with white tablecloths and candle centerpieces. Dim the lights to create a relaxed atmosphere, and play some mellow background music. To kick the evening off, pass round some wine trivia cards to get people talking. Set up a table with jugs of water and plates of bread, so that guests can clean their palates between tastings.
Wine tasting parties are a great idea for a party with a difference, and are educational as well as fun. Start making your wine tasting cards with this template and you will soon be in the mood to celebrate the many varieties of fine wine that are available.
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