Wine Tasting Party

“This is a new twist for us. We received such a fun letter from a member we wanted to share it with everyone. Her cover letter closed with; “……keep up the good work on finding us quality wines to sip each month.”

The enclosure reads as fol­lows.

“Recently, for my assistant’s 30th birthday, I decided to throw her small party. Our group of mu­tual friends know Ron, my hus­band, and I are enthusiastic wine tasters and they are always com­ing to us for wine suggestions for various functions they may attend. Since our friendship began, Ten-i, my assistant, has also getting into the wine scene. So, I decided to have a wine tasting party of my own. Ron and I have attended nu­merous tastings in the past so we felt we could conduct one of our own. What a way to broaden our friends horizons about wine!

On the invites, I stated the usu­al party info and added the varie­tal of wine I wanted each guest to bring. We sent out 8 invites: 3 were asked to bring a Chardonnay, 3 were asked to bring a White Zinfandel, and 2 were asked to bring a Reisling. Ron and I also contributed a Reisling.

I borrowed a couple of ban­quet tables and arranged place set­tings of 3 small glasses for each guest, a wine tasters note sheet, pencil, and, of course, our favorite wine crackers and dump bucket.

As our guests arrived, each with their selection of wine, my husband Ron “browned sacked” and marked each wine. We started our tasting by teaching our guests about swirling, smelling, then tast­ing each wine. Starting with the Chardonnays, we all shared com­ments (good and bad) and dumped when necessary. Everyone enthu­siastically jotted down their com­ments! After tasting each varietal, we voted the most popular with a show of hands. The guest that brought that wine got a round of applause.

Our guests left that evening with a new energy about wines and tasting. I think I have them hooked! One of the gals in our group wants to make this a bi­monthly event, with each host/ hostess suggesting different varie­tals. Next time we do reds.”

Sounds like everyone had a good time and that’s what counts! It is a pleasure for us to hear about our members taking upon them­selves to explore this fascinating world. For anyone who is interest­ed in hosting a party such as this the Wine of the Month Club has a nice document that many mem­bers have used to host such an event. Call us and we will be hap­py to send it to you. The objective, of course, is to have fun, meet with friends and enjoy the world of wine.

Salud!

P K Jr.