I love Christmas. I love wine. Put the two together and what do you have? The best damn time of your life, that’s what! lol Ok ok, in specific, you have a fabulous Christmas (or Holiday) themed wine party. Well, BLIND wine tastng party that is. If you’ve never been to a blind wine tasting party then OMGoodness, you’re in for such a fun time! I’ve thrown a few blind wine tasting parties in my day (ahem lol) but by far the holiday themed ones are my fave.
If you’re like “Ok Jules, but WTH is a blind wine tasting party?!?” Allow me to explain…it’s basically a funtastic party where you try a bunch of different wines without knowledge of where they are from (i.e. no known brand names). Oh, and you catch up with your fave pals and eat some super yummy food in the process (gotta soak up all that booze somehow, right??).
Now, if you’re like “Heck yea! That’s right up my alley. I want to throw one of those!” Then, yay, you’re in luck because I’m giving you all the deets on how to do just that!
Here’s your how-to on throwing a Christmas blind wine tasting party
What you’ll need:
- enough wine glasses to taste each wine (OR you can do one glass per person and rinse with water after each tasting)
- water, and lots of it! (for rinsing, cleansing the pallet, and/or staying somewhat coherent)
- a spit bucket (gross I know but you’ll need it to either rinse the glasses, dump wines you don’t like, and/or if you have spitters at your party…you know who you are! lol)
- food
- holiday decorations
Instructions:
Decide which wine to taste
As the hostess, you get to pick what wine will be tasted at the party and your guest are tasked to bring a bottle matching that criteria. For example, you want all Pinot Noir OR in specific, you want all Pinot Noir from the Santa Ynez Wine Region. You can also set a certain criteria for how much to spend per bottle (like $10/bottle, $20/bottle, etc). Your guest will each bring a bottle (covered so that no one knows what winery it is from). You’ll eventually place all of the bottles into their own numbered or lettered bag (like these).
Decide what food you want to serve
Being that you’ll be drinking a ton of wine at this party, you’ll want your guests soaking it up with something! Will it be a charcuterie and fromage platter? Appetizers only? Three course meal? Buffet style? Potluck is also an option, but being that your guest are already providing the booze, you may not want to go that route. However, if you only want to taste maybe 3-5 wines, but have more people than that attending the party, then by all means have the other folks bring an appetizer or something instead of wine. But with whatever you decide to serve (or have someone bring), give it a holiday spin. Whether that’s a cute cheese wreath or cranberry brie bites, be festive and have fun with it. For some great holiday food inspiration, click here.
Set the table!
My second fave part (first fave being the tasting lol…mmmmm). Decide where you’ll be doing your tasting and how formal (or informal) you want it to be. The sky is the limit with this one! I prefer my dining room because I have a pretty decent size table, but you could have it at your kitchen island, your backyard patio, your she-shed…wherever! And set the table with fabulous Christmas decor (as little or as much as you like). You can also match your tasting glasses to the type of wine you’ll be drinking OR keep it simple and use whatever glasses you have on hand. Up to you! 😉 Click here if you’re not sure how to match the wine glasses to the type of wine you’re planning to taste.
Provide Wine Tasting Scorecards
Make sure you print out (or have printed) tasting scorecards for all of your guests so that they can take notes on each wine as they go. The sheets will include an explanation as to how to wine taste (see, swirl, sniff, sip) as well as a ranking system for each of those categories. They’ll eventually have to decide which tasting was their favorite prior to the bottle unveiling. For a FREE downloadable holiday themed tasting sheet, make sure to subscribe to my blog!
Taste the wines!!!
Your bottles will be in their numbered bag, so starting from 1 to the last bottle, give each tasting its own time. Explain to your guests how to taste wine. If you are not sure how to taste wine, become familiar with this guide so you can easily demonstrate to your guests (and look like a pro, oh yea!!). Discuss the color, smell, and taste. Have fun swirling too!
The Unveiling
Once all wines have been tasted, discussed, and every one has picked their favorite by numbered bag, unveil each bottle. You’ll be shocked as to which ones you preferred. And that will probably get a great laugh out of it!
NOTES:
If you want to fancify this party (ok so fancify isn’t a real word but you know what I mean), then you could hire a party planner/designer, have the food catered & hire a real sommelier.
Want to go less expensive? Set the time of your party so that a meal isn’t expected (after lunch or after dinner) and then serve something inexpensive like quick & easy appetizer, a meat/cheese plate with crackers (use what’s on sale) OR go potluck style. Also, keep the decorations simple (or shop at the dollar store for great holiday finds).
Don’t forget to make sure every one has their transportation planned in advance! Uber is always a great option.
And there you have it, how to throw a Christmas blind wine tasting party. If you decide to throw one of these super fun parties, make sure to leave a comment and a photo of your party below. Cant wait to see your fabulous parties!
Have fun and drink up, lovelies!
XO, Jules