Over the past 40 years, I have run numerous wine tastings. But I would like to break them down into these categories, because each of them have their own unique situations and demands
Private Home Wine Tastings
In Store Wine Tastings
Large Group Wine Tastings
Private Home Wine Tastings
This are generally the most fun for me. So much depends on the people at these tastings and the types of wines that will be tasted. I’ve run tastings at my own house for friends, I’ve done it at other peoples home with their own set of friends. And I’ve run a full range of prices from the moderate priced wines (under $20) to higher priced wines ($25-$75) and then finally to the classics ($200-$500)
The first ting I always do is get to know the people that will be attending the tasting. What experience level do they have with wine? Can I find their basic likes and disk likes? I meet with the host of those parties to better understand what they are looking for and what their overall objective is. Some do it for just plain fun, some do it for educational purposes. Once I know the audience, then I go about identifying the number of wines they would like to taste and the types. Some wine tastings I’ve run we have had a sampling of all different styles of wine. Others, where I’ve concentrated on one particular grape. I find their price range and then go about selecting the wines that I feel would best suit their desires. Honestly, the most fun I have is when its all one grape style. Nothing better than to serve 6 different Cabernet Sauvignon from California and and then seeing the differences between them and identifying their various style and attributes. For many , they have so much fun tasting varied wines, a Merlot, a Shiraz, a Pinot Noir, etc This gives the audience a broad sense of what the different wines taste like and what they like or do not like.
I provide some basic instructional cards for everyone. I dont want to do too much of this, because I have found over the years, people tend not to look at the material and would rather listen and taste!.
As the price point of the wines increase, my approach in handling the tasting also changes. I will go into more details about the grape, the land, the winemaker, the fermentation, bottling, etc. Then discuss how each of these have an impact on the final product.
When it comes to the classics, its much more serious. I’ve only run 3 of these, at the cost of about $250 per person. Working through the store and with some wholesalers, I was able to serve some of the French classics including Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Haut Brion and Margaux. At that type of tasting, I sit with the people at the table and we all discuss the wines.
In Store Wine Tastings
I think the majority of the wine tastings I have run fall into this area. Each retail store I have worked at had different ways to do their tastings. Luckily for me, at the last store, the format of the tastings was left up to me and I was able to select the wines to be tasted.
Some retail stores run their tastings at specific hours (ie 12:00-5:00), while others run them all day long. My preference is at specific times, because that gives me the opportunity to concentrate more on the tasting then on selling wines on the floor.
At the last retail shop, we had a CO2 dispenser, that kept the wine fresh and controlled the wine pours. I would have three wines in there and then two wines I would pour the old fashion way. I really believe in using glass for tastings. Its more work, a bit more expensive, but it adds so much to the actual tasting.
I would talk to the customer about the wine that they are about to taste. ( the order would depend on the wines that were selected) I gave them some brief information as to what to expect, what to look for and then allow them to start tasting the wine. Right afterwards, I would ask each person who was tasting what their impression was. No right or wrong answers here, whatever they felt after drinking the wine is what counted.
This type of tasting promotes a level of education and enthusiasm for the customer. I have had the same customers coming in day after day to see what wine we were tasting and listening to my explanations.
Large Group Wine Tastings
Here I am talking about wine tastings for groups of 25 to 75 people. These were generally social events set up by various clubs, churches, organizations, etc. Most of the wines were limited to lower to medium prices ($7 to $15) and would consist of at least 8 different wine types. These events were really more social oriented then for wine education. I always brought material, left it at the main table, but only a hand full of people would bother to pick them up. Overall, these were always more less favorite type of wine tastings.
When it was possible, I would want some type of cracker available for these tastings. It is very important between wines to take a cracker before you go onto to the next wine. Without doing this, wines can seem to run into each other and its hard to tell anything apart. In CT, we were throttled by the State Liquor Authority. No crackers, no cheese, nothing at wine tastings unless you wanted to add a food license to your existing beverage license.
Home tastings was always different. We had the luxury in serving cheeses, grapes, honey, fruit and various meats that would compliment the wines.
I still enjoy and look forward to running wine tastings. Its a part of me that gets excited when I see people enjoy different wines and learn about them.