How to Host Your Own Wine Tasting

Use some mason jars, split the wines, deliver it to your friends and have a virtual tasting! You don’t need an excuse to open a bottle of wine but a great way to keep up with your friends and even learn something new in the middle of a pandemic is to host a wine tasting night! There are multiple ways you could do it but here are three to get you started:

1. Vertical Tasting

Host a vertical tasting where you choose one varietal over the course of a few years with multiple vintages. For example, tasting the 2014 – 2019 Le Vieux Pin Syrahs. By ensuring that the varietal, region, and producer stays the same, it allows you to learn how the vintage has evolved over the years. Serve the wines in chronological order to taste the different flavours and aromas that can come from drinking a younger wine versus a wine that has been aged for longer. The young and fruity notes are replaced by complex earthy, savoury and other hard-to-pin notes.

2. Horizontal Tasting

Host a horizontal tasting by comparing wines from the same vintage but different producers. A great example would be comparing our Le Vieux Pin wines with those of other producers or our very own sister winery: LaStella Winery. With horizontal tasting, you can learn about the difference between French and Italian winemaking. For example you can look at how Le Vieux Pin (Equinoxe) and LaStella (Allegretto and Maestoso) have different approaches to Merlot.

3. “Fight Club”

Host a “Fight Club” night. Settle down, we can talk about this one! Ask everyone to bring their favourite bottle of wine, draw a number and slowly battle it out for the best wine of the night.  The last bottle standing wins!Pro-tip: Go with a more “showy” wine rather than a subtle, coy wine. I would start a fight night with a high acid white wine to calibrate and cleanse the palate before you begin.Now, the idea here is not to compare apples to peaches but keep themes loose to ensure a fair fight!  Maybe go with lighter bodied reds or no red older than 7 years and younger than 3. Another idea could be only choosing cabernet and cabernet blends. Obviously, this will be more fun if the winner gets something out of it so maybe set up a system where the losers chip in for the cost of the winner’s dinner or has to bring the next cleanser wine for the next fight!

No matter how you decide to host your next wine night, don’t forget to include a good selection of nibbles to keep your guests fuelled all evening! We’re going all night long, okay?

Written by Jen Garcia, Edited by Nicole Lee