Wine Tasting

Learning more about wine

Doing a comparative tasting of a number of wines, while being guided by a certified wine expert, is a great way to improve your wine knowledge. And when you do this in a relaxed in-home setting, surrounded by friends, it’s even better.

We will help you plan, and host, a wine tasting evening with your invited guests. During the evening you will taste between 4 - 6 different wines, learning more about the wine you’re tasting, and learning how to determine your own rating for each wine. Your wine guide will also provide a selection of cheeses and chocolate for you to experience how these tastes impact how you experience the wine.

Our wine experts have spent many tens, or even hundreds, of hours learning about wine. They are passionate about wine, and have passed numerous exams to become a certified wine expert, including achieving WSET Level 3 Award in Wines - a globally recognized qualification that is an international standard in wine knowledge for professionals working in the wine industry (Click here for more information on the Level 3 WSET Award).

Planning the party

Email or call us and we will assign one of our certified wine experts to work with you on planning, and then executing, your tasting party. We will help you decide on a wine tasting theme and price range, and you then invite a group of friends and ask them each to bring a bottle that fits with the theme.

We generally recommend keeping the tasting to around 8 people for a fun and intimate evening, and plan to taste between 4 and 6 bottles of wine. This means each couple brings a bottle, and as host you may want to add an additional bottle or two to keep things interesting (for example, bring a bottle significantly out of the expected price range - either higher or lower - to see how that compares).

Your wine tasting party

On the evening of the party, your wine guide will arrive before the start of the party to help setup everything. He or she will bring everything that is needed - including tasting glasses, a selection of cheeses to compliment the wine you’re tasting, and crackers for cleansing the palate between tastings.

There is nothing more fulfilling than creating memorable moments with good food, good conversation and great wines. Your wine guide will be your tour guide on a fun wine tasting adventure, educating you and your guests on:

🍷 different varieties of grapes
🍷 wine aromas & flavors
🍷 wine and food complements
🍷 winemaking region and types of wines

These areas will be customized to focus on the particular theme that is chosen and intertwined throughout the tasting party as follows:

🍷 Introduction of the theme and an understanding of the respective grapes and winemaking regions
🍷 Instruction on how to taste each wine using a simple systematic approach
🍷 Pairing of appropriate cheese and/or food with each wine during the tasting process
🍷 Guidance on identifying different aromas and flavors and understanding their interaction with your palette

Each guest will have a scoring sheet where they can record notes on the tasting and their scoring for each wine. Throughout the tasting your wine guide will keep an interesting and informative conversation going about the wines that are being tasted.

While we offer various styles of wine tasting, we find a blind tasting to be a fun way to learn about wine, and it is often considered to be the purest way to sample a wine. With none of your guests knowing which wine is which during the tasting, all wines will be tasted impartially, and at the end of the evening your wine guide will reveal which wine received the highest average rating of the evening (and who gets bragging rights for having brought it!).

After the party

Within a day or two after the wine tasting, your wine guide will email you a report with details on the wines that were tasted and a summary of the scoring, which you can share with your guests.

Learning about wine is an on-going journey, and having a regular tasting with friends (perhaps alternating the hosting) is a great way to continue on your wine tasting journey. So after your tasting party, check the calendar, and contact us to schedule your next in-home wine tasting party.

Click here to contact us and schedule your in-home wine tasting today.