We belong to a neighborhood wine club. They are so popular in our neighborhood there are actually 4 clubs with about 20 members each. We cap it at 20 since numbers above that become a little challenging to host. Each month a member couple or individual has an event and picks a theme. We’ve had all the country themes already, Italy, Spain, etc… most of the major regions as well. We’ve done guess the varietal competitions, food parings, wines under $20, wines under $30 and just straight up tastings. Our turn to host is coming up and I am looking for suggestions. Folks seem to like something competitive or blind. It keeps their interest longer into the evening, but I am open to any and all suggestions as long as we all remain fully clothed. Any thoughts?
Same varietal (or close blend), vineyard and vintage, different producers, blind? Such as:
Flight 1: 2012 Keefer Ranch Pinot SVD from Failla, Siduri, and A.P. Vin
Flight 2: 2013 Limerick Lane Vineyard Zin from Carlisle, Bedrock, Limerick Lane
Etc…
Wines left un-sampled by Alice Feiring?
I like that idea, but it is challenging.
The other part I failed to mention is that the participants bring their wines. So specific wines or reasonably hard to get wines would be problematic. I need the wines to be relatively mass distributed.
Brilliant.
Have a brown bag tasting. Each person brings a wine of their choice. Everyone gets a small taste. The challenge is to guess the wine. The person bringing the wine leads the guessing by giving hints. 1st hint is it a single varietal or blend. Then old world new world. It is fun but humbling.
We do this every week at our lws.
Pinot Noir not from Cali, Oregon or France.
Riesling not from Germany or Austria.
Nebbiolo, not Barolo.
themes like these can make blind tasting really fun and don’t have to break the bank.
Regional competitions: Napa vs Bordeaux, Napa vs Washington Cabs, or even WA vs. S African Cabs. CA vs OR Pinot, etc.
Same variety, maybe same year & growing area: Prices at $10, $20, $30, etc. or $20, $40, $60… See how they finish in a blind tasting.
Oddball varieties: Chenin Blanc, Carignan, whatever.
All great ideas! Thank you. Keep 'em coming.
Blind Tasting Themes:
“Sticks & Stones” - all wines, either by name, SVD, or label art must have some relation to sticks and/or stones.
“Animal Style” - all wines, either by name, SVD, or label art must have some relation to an animal.
you can choose to put upper or lower $$$ limits on wine…i’ve found it more fun where there are not limits in blind tastings. the results are often surprising.
GL
I like “Favorites vs Underdogs.” Each couple brings two bottles - one bottle of a favorite wine (typically in the $40-$100 range, though you can adjust as you wish) and the other bottle is an “under $20 underdog” - a wine that couple thinks is a great QPR wine. Guests should announce all the wines in advance (at least to the host) so they can be flighted appropriately, but then the wines should be served blind within their flights. There’s nothing better than deciding which wine you like best in a flight and then finding out that it was someone’s underdog and you can get it for <$20.
One of the more interesting ones we did was a horizontal and vertical.
We used a single vineyard - Pisoni Pinot Noir.
The pre-tasting wines were all the same year, but different producers of Pinot Noir from the Pisoni Vineyard.
The main (blind) tasting was a vertical of Siduri Pisoni Pinot Noir.
It was a lot of fun to see what different producers did with the “same grapes” in the pre tasting. And equally interesting to taste the wines in the vertical tasting.
Countries are huge. Don’t do Spain, Italy, France, etc. Do smaller regions, perhaps comparing? For example, Chianti vs Brunello. Or explore the Veneto. Or Ribera del Duero vs Rioja and see if you can find the same producers working in the different areas. Or Beaujolais vs Burgundy. Or the various crus or regions of each.
Or try the same variety from the same producer in different regions. Or blends vs monovarietal wines from the same region. Or single-vineyard vs multiple vineyards, all blind.
Or same vintage in different areas or from the same area to get a feel for the vintage.
There’s a lot you can do.
Old world vs new world for the same varietal. You might want to provide people with a limited list of varieties and ask them to pick the one they would like to sponsor. This way you get a pair of cabs, a pair of pinots, a pair of rieslings, etc. It’s broad but seems to fit the neighbours night out and widely available wines to source.
If I’m wrong about your neighbours and they are willing to hunt a bit harder for bottles you could do Age vs Youth of the same wines. Pairs of the same bottling of wines with “more than 10 years” between them. You could limit it to region and then see how the big boys do against underdogs when they’re put to the test of age. It’s not nearly as easy to source but it’s helpful in understanding why (some) wines are “trophy” wines.
20 people is pushing the limits for getting intimate with the wines.
You mentioned most of the wines will be ones that are widely distributed. I can (unfortunately) relate, as our local group cannot find a decent selection unless you make an effort to drive beyond our county, or mail them in. We’ve had mixed results and it is really difficult to judge them blind when the conditions are not analytical. With everyone bringing their own wine, it is hard to get like-minded wines together and becomes a very mixed bag and not everyone adheres to the rules or wants to bring in ‘a ringer’ that really doesn’t belong in the grouping.
Sorry for complaining on your thread, but some of what you said resonated with me.
Rhone rangers vs cdp is one of my favorites
I like “old school night” at our wine club, meaning nothing from this century. The crowd is California-centric so some great 80’s and 90’s Cabs come out.
It sounds like people are going out and buying the wines for the tastings, so have to shop locally from a common pool of selections. And, since you say people favor/engage in the competitive aspects, how about an A v. B theme with a prize for best guesser(s). For example, California vs. Oregon Pinot Noir. Divvy up the group evenly and assign - A-K, bring Califormia selections, L-Z, bring Oregon. You, as host, could provide a ringer not from either (a Burgundy or New Zealander, for example, or even something that isn’t Pinot Noir but that you think might fool people). If you want to help folks out, tell them what the final tally should look like, as in "There are 10 California, 9 Oregon, and 1 Ringer.
You could have multiple prizes…pick the ringer, best identification overall, miss them all, etc.
If you want to involve election politics, you could caucus on each wine, with proponents trying to win over votes for where it is from.
Have fun.
fred
I hesitated to state the same. I think it depends. 20 gals and guys who participate on this board can be highly instructive. 20 neighbours looking for an escape from kids, some gossip and buzz is probably going to limit the intimacy one can achieve with their glass.
This bit I agree with emphatically. It worse than being told, “bring a salad or dessert”. As a host I prefer to tell someone, “bring two cab sauv based wines; one cali and one French”.
I’ve also been to tastings where the host provided the majority of the bottles because they were adamant about the tasting being educational (at least for themselves). Asking your neighbours for “$50” to attend your tasting might sounds…well…un-neighbourly. In that case, accept the Argentinian Malbec ringer at the PN tasting with open arms.
I see some of you have experience with groups like this and can commiserate with my plight.
Of the 20 in attendance, 5 or 6 are fellow geeks and enjoy the experience. The next 10 or so are just there to have fun and chat up their neighbors. A couple are there to get loaded and then you have the cheapskate or two that swears Apothic Red is the best wine at any price on the planet.
Paul you are right. The more detailed the instructions, the less likely Apothic Red shows up.