Hosting a Wine Tasting

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You can do whatever strikes your fancy. You can get the same wine, such as a Syrah/Shiraz from France, Australia, South Africa and the US and taste how different clones of the same grape, different climates and different winemaking techniques affect the wines. You can get the same wine, like Sauvignon Blanc, from different areas of the same place, like California, and taste how different microclimates change the flavor profile. You can get a series of different wines from the same place and just taste. You can get the same wine from the same winery but from a number of different vintages to see how weather affects the wine from year to year. Lots of ways to structure a tasting. A standard 750 ml bottle of wine is about 25 ounces, and with a normal tasting pour of 1 1/2 ounces you'll get about 15 pours from each bottle. You'll also need to have some snacks (bread, crackers, cheeses, etc.), some water to clear palates and to rinse glasses, as well as some spit buckets. You might also want to make up a tasting sheet with the names and vintages of the wines with space for people to take notes - and score the wines, if you want to go that far.