Hosting a Wine Tasting Party - How It Went!

Everything was almost ready - the pulled pork smelled heavenly, the cheeses were all laid out, water on the table, wine tasting mats all ready. I just needed to put the tasting glasses out that I had bought at IKEA. OK - ten guests means 2 glasses each so 20 glasses....

Oh no, I only have ten! Ugh....

Luckily, I had bought some other glasses that I was going to use for after the tasting but they would have to be tasting glasses as well!

The guests arrived, bringing the required bottle of wine as well as a tasty cheese and some crackers. Luckily, all arrived around 6pm and I had them drop off their cheese and wine at the kitchen counter and have a seat at the table where everything was set up.

I explained the tasting mat and what we could do to help us compare the wines. Above all, I cautioned, this is about friends getting together and having fun - and that is exactly what happened!

I had purchased wine pourers from the local liquor store - and these helped a lot. They slowed down the rate of wine coming out of the bottle and looked very professional as well! I bought two different colours so it was easy to differentiate who was pouring which wine. All wines were placed in paper bags with a label of what kind of wine it was. Due to the rather warm day (26°C.) the Sauvignon Blancs were refrigerated until needed, the Pinots were refrigerated for 20 minutes before serving, and the Shiraz wines were refrigerated for just 7 minutes.

The first two wines were Sauvignon Blancs. I didn't know if there were any big drinkers of SB but I thought that this would be a good one to start off with.

The first was an 2016 Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc ($20)  from New Zealand. It tasted crisp and had nice fruit flavours with some complexity. It was medium in intensity and our group rated it between Good and Very Good. One of our number, Anna, said that she thought is was a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand - Oyster Bay! Truly amazing! Apparently that is one of her 'go to' wines but, still!

The second of the pair was a 2016 Les Fumées Blanches ($15)  from France. It is a Vin de France so is classified as table wine. This Sauvignon Blanc had a low intensity nose and lacked much of the fruit and flavours of the Oyster Bay. There was a subtle minerality underlying this wine but the overall taste was just not that great. Combined with a short finish, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Of our group of ten, nine were in agreement that the Oyster Bay was the better Sauvignon Blanc due to its nose, taste, balance and complexity.

The second two wines were both Pinot Noirs, one Old World,, and one New World.

The first was a local wine from the Okanagan - a 2016 See Ya Later Ranch Pinot Noir ($20). It had some very nice red fruit both on the nose and on the palate. It had a good long finish and was fairly complex. This was a very enjoyable Pinot Noir and was rated Very Good.

The second was a 2014 Joseph Drouhin Pinot Noir from Burgundy ($26). I had bought this one and I thought that it would be a great choice. As it turned out, it was Ok but the flavours seemed a bit too subtle and a bit overwhelmed with the acidity of the wine. There was almost an astringent taste on the finish which was really noticeable to most of us. The harsh finish and lack of real character put this one between adequate and good - it wasn't balanced, nor complex, nor had a good finish. The aroma was a bit intense and the wine was somewhat expressive of Pinot Nor.

Overall, it was another no brainer - nine of ten agreed that the Okanagan Pinot Noir was much better due to its taste, complexity, finish, and balance.

Our final two wines were Shiraz/Syrah. I had intentionally gone from less bold wines to more bold wines so I felt that the Shiraz/Syrah would be a nice way to finish off.

The first was a 2011 Domaine des Lises (no website found - owned by Maxim Graillot)  Crozes-Hermitage ($34) that I also had bought. I had purchased a Crozes-Hermitage last month (surprisingly, an Ogier Heritage Crozes-Hermitage - might have been a 2012) and it was super disappointing - flabby, watery and characterless. I was worried about shelling out $34 for what could be another stinker but thought I'd give it a try.

This was a whole different animal. It had great structure, complex taste of black cherries, black berries and tobacco. The only thing that really stopped it from being an outstanding wine was the fact that it smelled like canned peas! Yes, that's right - canned peas! Once you got through that initial aroma, however, it was an amazing wine. Actually, it was a little short on the finish as well. Still, a Very Good wine.

The second Shiraz was a 2015 Shingleback Red Knot from the McLaren Vale of Australia ($20). This started out very promising with a great bouquet but lost that boldness on the palate where it was rather average. It had some structure but not a lot of complexity of flavours. For all that I've heard of Australian Shiraz's, this one was not overly impressive. It did have a nice, deep, dark purple colour, though. This was rated as a Good wine.

Finally, in the third round, France came up with a victory. This was a bold drinking wine that would do justice to barbecued meats and even a nice, juicy steak.

After our tasting, I set up the bottles with the remaining wine ( about half in each) and we had a variety of cheeses while we chatted, discussed the wines, laughed, and generally had a great time. Another hour later, we brought out the pulled pork and cole slaw and our guests tucked into this offering. Finally, another hour later, out came the peach crisp, coffee, tea and some nice port.

It was past eleven when the last wave of guests left. I high-fived my wife after such a good evening and we went to bed, content in our first-time hosting of a wine tasting party.

Hosting a Wine Tasting - How to Prepare

When I was camping with a few friends earlier this summer, as we drank our wine in the evening after some light hiking, we talked about the possibility of getting together every so often to taste wine. We did this at the camp each night we were there and it was a lot of fun. We also learned about wine and came up with some common ground in terms of smells and tastes.

Shortly after the trip was over I invited my friends and their wives for a tasting evening - and that is happening tonight.

There will be five couples in all so this is how I organized it:

First pair of wines will be Sauvignon Blanc - I asked one couple to bring one from the New World and one from the Old World.
Next pair of wines will be Pinot Noir - I asked one couple to bring one from the New World and I will supply one from the Old World.
Finally, -we are going to do Syrah/Shiraz -  I asked one couple to bring one from the Australia and I will supply one from the Old World.

Yes, I have to supply two bottles but I figured that's the host's responsibility with an odd number of people.

I asked that people spend between $20 and $30 so we will be hopefully getting a decent representation. If a person were to do this themselves, they could pick anything - it doesn't have to be the same varietal in each pair or they could do six different Pinot Noir wines in one night. Since this is the first time I have hosted, I thought doing three different wines would make it a little more interesting.

Next thing I did was to make up a wine mat. I went online and took some information from a couple of different mats and then added my own. Here's what I had:

• two circles for the wine glasses (I bought the small ones from IKEA - 6 for $5) so that everyone had two glasses and could compare. The IKEA ones are fairly small and super cheap so if you break them, it's not the end of the world.
• a box with columns for the number of the wine and rows for appearance, nose, palate and finish. I didn't want to make this overly complicated - in fact, I will suggest that people just put a high, medium or low rating - if they rate each wine at all. Perhaps people can just check the box after we talk about each row.aromas to draw from - although I'm not sure about gooseberry
• overall rating - BLICE - this is the overall rating that we used in WSET 2 to decide if a wine was outstanding (all 5 rated high), very good (3 or 4 rated high), good (2 rated high), adequate (1 rated high) or poor (none rated high). 

Well, you might thing, that's all well and good, but what does BLICE stand for?

• Balance - are the flavours balanced? Is the acidity balanced with some sweetness? Is the alcohol the right strength? Is it overly oaked? 
• Length - is the finish long enough? Can you still taste the wine after 30 seconds? a minute? The taste of the wine should be pleasant.
• Intensity - is the aroma strong? Does the taste really impact your mouth?
• Complexity - are there several flavours/aromas in the wine? If it just tastes of strawberries or oak, it is probably not very complex.
• Expressiveness - from what you know about this type of wine, does it taste similar to them.

I set up the wine mats, and then put the two IKEA glasses down, a water glass, a Solo cup for a spit cup, some crackers and a jug of water.

When guests arrive, I will take their wine and put each bottle in a paper bag that I procured from the BC Liquor store. Hopefully, I will remember to label each bag as well. The plan is to go over what is on the wine tasting mat, then pour two of the Sauvignon Blanc (the first wine) and discuss. Then repeat. And again!  I bought wine pourers from the liquor store so I will have to see if that makes a difference.

I plan to do all six wines at the beginning of the evening. If I make fairly small pours, hopefully there will be enough for people to be able to get another glass of their favourites.

After we taste all of the wines (and people are encouraged to spit, if need be) we will serve a number of cheeses, meats and pulled pork sandwiches as well. This is meant to be an informal night so we wanted to serve food that will be easy to prepare and that people can dig into while they drink their wine.  We also bought some regular sized universal wine glasses (from Costco - and they were not all that expensive) for guests to use as they sip and nosh.

We do have a couple other bottles of wine on hand as we really don't know how this will go. And you certainly don't want to run out of wine!

I''m pretty excited about this evening - I think it will be a lot of fun and I hope that we will all learn something!