The Wine Knows

Over on The Seattle Times Web site, Paul Gregutt's first column of the year gives several great tips on starting a wine-tasting group.

Wine-tasting groups can be fun and educational, and they don't necessarily need to be formal. Having a wine-tasting party can serve a similar purpose. Here's how I would suggest putting one together.

-- Invite 10 or fewer people.

-- Select a theme by wine style, region or both. For example, you could choose Southern Oregon OR Cabernet Sauvignon OR Southern Oregon Cabernet Sauvignon. You might also want to choose a price range.

-- Everybody brings a bottle of wine from that theme. Be sure to give people a few weeks if the theme is somewhat obscure and will require going to a wine shop or ordering from wineries directly.

-- Decide if you will cook all the food or if it will be potluck (I like potluck because many of my friends are such good cooks).

-- Have enough glasses for everyone to have two or three. Renting glasses is pretty simple and cheap (you usually don't even need to clean them afterward).

-- Decide if you want the wines served blind or open. If you serve them blind, then you can have some fun and let everyone score their favorites. If you don't want to bother with that, then just put all the wines on a table or counter and let folks try what they want.

-- Encourage spitting by putting out spit cups (these can be those red plastic cups we used to have at college keggers). Also put out dump buckets so nobody feels compelled to drink everything in their glass after a sip or two. If everyone is going to taste one or two ounces of a dozen bottles, they will need to spit if they plan to legally drive later. Even if they aren't driving, they won't enjoy the wines as much if they're tipsy.

-- Encourage discussion about the wines and keep them the focus. Perhaps compile info sheets on each wine (many wineries provide them on their Web sites as PDFs). Thus, everyone knows later what they tried.

-- Follow up after the party with an email to everyone, once again encouraging discussion on the wines.

The purposes for such a party are multifold: to have fun, to try different wines, to discuss and learn about wine, to eat good food and to deepen friendships.