Wine Tasting

The other night, we hosted a wine tasting at our house as a fellowship activity for parents at our church. We had 34 people in attendance and it was an absolute blast.

When people arrived we had them take this quiz on the computer (we had two laptops set up in the kitchen) to determine what kind of wine they were. Then they selected the corresponding name tag and wrote their name on it. (I was a chardonnay which is funny since that is my favorite. Pinot Noirs were very common at this party)

Tony and I provided the wine for two blind tastings. We did a chardonnay tasting and a cabernet tasting. We bought a lower priced bottle (under $10) a mid-priced bottle ($15) and an expensive bottle (over $20) of each kind. Each bottle was covered with foil so you couldn't tell which wine it was. Everyone tasted the wines and rated them using this sheet.

We had each couple bring 2 bottles of the same kind of wine and an appetizer that went with their wine. We opened one bottle of each wine and placed it with the appetizers.

Everyone got to decide which wines they wanted to try. I made these wine journals so that people could take notes about the different wines they were trying. I bought little composition books and then used Avery full page labels to make the covers.

With the second bottles of wine we set up a drawing. Each couple picked a number and then they got a bottle of wine to take home that corresponded with that number.

The carnage--all the different wines that people tasted--we were left with a lot of half-empty bottles! Luckily, some people took bottles home when they left!

I loved the concept of the blind tasting. It was a lot of fun to see what people liked-most people liked the least expensive chardonnay and the mid-range cabernet. It was also neat to be able to try a variety of different wines. My favorite quote of the night was from a friend that said, "I haven't tasted a wine that I haven't liked!"