When my husband mentioned that he would spend the night at the hunting camp recently, my wheels started spinning. I was craving some long overdue friend time and this was my chance while hubby was out of the house! I love to entertain, but my hectic work and family schedule has left me with very little time to indulge this year. When my friend Jackie mentioned attending a blind wine tasting party, this fun idea had been living in the back of my mind. When opportunity knocked, I put together this laid back and fun blind wine tasting game and invited over some girlfriends to drink some blind fine and not-so-fine wine!
I chose 6 bottles of wine ranging in price from $5 to $50 at a grocery store. I chose only two whites and 4 reds because the majority of my friends prefer red wine. I bagged each bottle in a brown paper wine bag, tied it with a fun ribbon out of my craft bucket and taped the number on the bags with some festive glitter tape. The bottles were labeled with numbers 1 through 6. You can actually purchase blind wine tasting kits with bags, but in the spirit of simplicity, I used paper bags.
I lined up the bottles (labeled 1-6) on the table along with some cheese for snacking in between tastings. I served Manchego, Havarti Dill, Wensleydale, and one of my favorite hors-d’oeuvres, phyllo shells filled with goat cheese and topped with fig preserves. I also served turkey breast with rolls, seafood stuffed mushrooms and hummus with cucumbers for dipping.
Each guest was given a wine glass marked with a wine charm, scorecard and a bottle of water to sip in between tastings. We started with bottle 1 and tasted at our own pace, jotting notes on the scorecard. The scorecard included a place to guess the varietal, the price range and a one-word description. The whites were sampled first and then the reds. We were very casual and some very creative descriptive words were tossed around in the scoring process, as you can imagine! I gave a prize to the guest who was the most accurate.
After tastings and cards were complete, I revealed the wines one by one and had each guest self-score to determine how she did on guessing the varietal and the price range. We discovered some good, inexpensive wines that were just as enjoyable (if not more) than the pricier bottles! The $5 white was preferred over the $20 bottle, and one $10 bottle of red was preferred over a $50 bottle. I so enjoyed the laughs and time with my friends.
Can you share what your score cards looked like? What were the “varietal” options?