Hosting a blind wine tasting provides an entertaining evening and often yields surprising results. The most famous was the 1976 Paris Tasting when upstart California wines outranked some of France's most treasured and revered whites and reds, sending shock waves throughout the wine industry. While your blind tasting might not be as earth shaking, it's sure to be a hit with your guests.
Instructions
1. Organize your blind tasting by deciding what kinds of wine to taste. For example, you may decide to taste one varietal (one grape variety), such as Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, Merlots or Cabernets. You can select one brand from each of several wine producing regions or countries, such as the Napa Valley, Washington state, Burgundy, Australia, New Zealand and Chile. You can also taste a number of different types of wines, progressing from whites to reds, dry to sweet or any combination you think your guests will enjoy sampling. Most tasting experts recommend four to six wines as the ideal number for a tasting. One bottle will serve 12 to 16 guests with small servings of about 1 1/2 ounces each.
2. Select a good, all purpose glass so your guests can swirl, smell and taste the wines effectively. Most wineries use glasses that are medium sized and narrower at the top than at the middle of the bowl. You can use a single glass for each guest if you also provide a pitcher of water and a large bucket so guests can rinse the glass after each selection. For more serious tasting, provide a separate glass specially designed for each type of wine in the tasting. See the Resource Section for all-purpose wine glasses.
3. Wrap each wine bottle in a paper bag taped at the top, aluminum foil, or a specially made wine bag. This conceals the labels and makes the tasting more objective, adding to the fun and insuring that no one is influenced by their expectations of a well known label. Number each bottle for identification. Remove the corks and set them aside since many corks also have labeling information on them.
4. Provide the accompaniments to the tasting. Palate cleansers, such as bread, crackers and mild cheeses help neutralize the taste of one wine before tasting the next. Some guests may want to spit out the wine after tasting, and some may also want to dump the remaining contents of their glasses after the initial taste. Provide opaque plastic spit cups and a large bucket to pour the spit cups and the remaining wine into. Spread a white tablecloth over the tasting table to highlight the wine's color when it's poured.
5. Give each guest a pencil and a scoring sheet so they can record their impressions of each of the wines. See the Resource Section for sample scoring sheets. Allow everyone enough time to taste through the selection of wines and discuss their impressions. Your guests may want to retaste some or all of the wines after they compare notes, so try to reserve some of each bottle for this purpose. Have everyone choose their favorites before revealing the labels.
Tags: blind tasting, each bottle, each guest, , large bucket