Design an Introductory Red Tasting!

[Auburnwine]

All right, ladies and gents, here's a pleasant intellectual challenge for you.

At our church auction, we sold a red wine tasting for eight. The participants will be novices, so muuch of what I present to them will be new information. I want to provide reasonably good wines, but obviously won't be stocking up on Grange. And I will probably offer them six wines and a glass of port or muscat.

What do I want to accomplish? I guess that I want them to learn something about wine and how to evaluate wine -- and, most of all, to have a good time.

There are a couple of approaches to take: geographic, varietal, blends, etc.

What types of wines would YOU select and how would YOU structure the tasting?