Wine Tasting Clubs

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Wine tasting clubs or groups are a great way to taste many wines without the big expense of purchasing many different bottles but they have so many other benefits as well.

How does a wine tasting club save you money? Easy! If your tasting club let’s say has 10 members and each member brings one bottle of wine to share for your tasting—that’s 10 bottles of wine to taste for the price of one. Everyone shares their wines (you can do this many different ways which we will talk about) and your price of entry was one bottle. Not bad, huh?

Besides the cost factor, there are many other benefits to wine tasting clubs. Getting together and tasting in a group is good for many reasons. Being with other people who are interested in wine broadens your horizons in many ways. Perhaps someone brought a wine that you had never heard of or thought to bring yourself. Well, you just got to taste a wine that you probably would not have on your own—(this happens to me often). Another benefit to your wine tasting club is the fact that you get to hear other’s opinions of the wines besides your own. Every time you get to taste with others, it is inevitable that they will say something or make a comment that will make you think and say to yourself "oh yeah! They’re right, I didn’t catch that at first." So, wine tasting clubs not only offer a cost savings, but their educational too! Definitely a win-win.

Forming your own wine tasting club is not very difficult. First, check with your fellow wine aficionados and see if they know of any wine tasting clubs/groups out there that would be willing to take on a new member or two. Frequently, there are informal tasting groups out there that you may not know of until you ask. If not, or if you’d rather form your own, that’s easy to do too. Chances are you have a friend or two that is into wine, right? Well, ask them if they would like to get together once or twice a month and taste wines as a group. Also ask them if they have any friends who might be interested in coming. The first time you meet and get to know one another, the friends of friends can be invited and so forth. Before you know it, this thing can grow.

So once you have a wine tasting club formed, what types of tastings can you do? The answer is a ton. There are so many variations of tastings you can do that you won’t be running out of ideas anytime soon. Try alternating the hosts/hostesses and have the group meet at a different club member’s house each time. This rotates the duties of a host or hostess so that not one person is stuck having to setup, clean and host the wine tasting each and every time.

You can also make a dinner party out of the event—perhaps even combining the two. If the theme for the tasting is Italian reds, then each member can also bring some sort of Italian dish to go with their wine. These tastings are usually so much fun that sometimes the focus changes from the wines to the food that the wine pairs with.

Many tasting groups like to have different themes for each tasting. This is a good way to experience many types of different wines. For example, you could have the theme be French whites from the northern Rhone area of France (pretty specific). Or, on the flipside you could have the theme be “your favorite bottle of red for under $10” (pretty generic). You can be as specific or generic as you want. If you are looking for ideas to start, try doing varietal tastings first—so maybe something like “Pinot Noir less than $40” or “Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon”. Sometimes setting a price-point keeps the tasting more focused and reasonable. But, you can have something extravagant too like, “Favorite wines for over $100”…yikes, sounds pricey right? But on the flip side you get to taste a few other over $100 wines while sharing yours, so it makes it a little easier. There are many, many themes to choose from for your tastings. Think varietal, think countries, think growing regions and then combine those to mix it up a bit.

However you choose to do your tasting, have a good time doing it. The point is to broaden your horizons and learn something new every time, but in the process you will be sure to have a good time as well. Cheers!

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