How to go about holding a wine tasting

[Innkeeper]

A lot depends on the sophistication of the participants palates. If it is varied or even low, you might not get much from tasting similar wines such as all from one region. For a cross section of palates, I like to go with six wines, three white and three red. Multiple bottles of each depending on the size of the crowd. The whites should be one dry, one off dry, and one sweet. The reds should be one light bodied, one medium, and one full. You should have bite size foods available to go with each wine, as well as hunks of plain bread for palate cleansing.

Here are some suggestions. For the whites: A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, a German Riesling Kabinett (preferably from Rheingau), and a California Muscat. For the reds: An Italian Bardolino (preferably other than Bolla), a Julienas from Beaujolais (1999 or 2000), and an approachable petite sirah such as Parducci from California or Warrabilla from Australia. There are thousands of other combinations, but hopefully this gives you the idea. The goal is to expose participants with a broad cross section of the world's wines.