Fun Bachelorette Ideas: How to Host a Wine Tasting Party

Posted on September 23, 2013 at 3:39 pm by Beeb Ashcroft

Wines provided by Banfi.

How to Host a Wine Tasting Party

One of the activities I arranged for Jaime’s bachelorette party last month was a wine tasting. I think it turned out well and would be a great activity for any bachelorette, since it covers a lot of bases and can be as involved or casual as the atmosphere dictates. Here’s how I put together mine!

Compile Your Wine List

I talked about this briefly in my article on tips for selecting bachelorette wine. I asked the bride for her preferences in wines, and then asked my friends at Banfi what they would suggest based on that. This is what they recommended:

Le Rime Pinot Grigio

Centine Bianco

Principessa Gavia Gavi

Rosa Regale Brachetto d’Acqui

I also printed out a copy of the wine list to display on the table, so guests could easily see what was available.

Choose Your Food Pairings

With my wine list in hand, I then created a menu for the party that included food pairings for the wines:

The Rosa Regale Brachetto d’Acqui was paired with a selection of Merci Chocolates.
I paired the Centine Bianco with Aceitunas a la Sevillana, which I was making for a Tapas competition. I just made a double batch: One for the party, and one for the competition!
Since the Centine Rosso, Rosa Regale, and Rainstorm Pinot Gris go particularly well with cheese, I created an entire end table dedicated just to cheese. I served Brie, Havarti, Gouda, Cheddar, Goat, and Mini Baybel cheeses, along with a couple of loaves of homemade bread and grapes.
The Bolla Bardolino pairs nicely with pizza, so I picked up a few varieties of pizza to serve as our main course.

Decorate Your Table

I printed out the tech sheets for each wine and placed them on the table underneath the corresponding bottle. These sheets told guests all about each variety of wine, so they would know where each wine was produced as well as its characteristics. The tech sheets for all Banfi Wines are all available on the wine product pages I linked to above, if you end up doing a similar wine tasting and want to know where to find them.

I also included a pretty, decorative handpainted wine glass on the table as an accent, as I talked about in an earlier post. As you may have noticed in the photos above, I put small plastic stemware on the table for the wine tasting. I actually found them at Dollar Tree – I got one package of plastic wine glasses and one package of plastic champagne flutes, for variety. I wanted a cute way to serve the wine without having to mess around with transporting and washing over a dozen wine glasses!

Prepare Wine Tasting Cards

I made up a set of custom wine tasting cards for the party and set them on the table along with a stack of pencils. This way, guests could record which wines they liked (Or didn’t!), and take a card home to remember which ones were their favorites. I wanted to share the printable I made, in case anyone would like to use it at their next party:

Free Wine Tasting Card Printable

Click Here to Download This Wine Tasting Card Printable – .PNG File, 825 x 562 px
NOTE: I wanted to keep these cards small, so they only fill about 1/3 of a standard 8 x 11″ page; you will need to trim the paper to fit. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it works. 😉

How Our Party Turned Out

Banfi provided me with some tips on determining how much wine I might need – click here to read those if you missed it! – which was really helpful. There was a generous amount of wine to begin with – the guests were impressed by the variety of wines I had available! – and since I was also serving other cocktails and beverages, we had wine left over for dinner the next day and for the bride to keep as a gift. It worked out great!

The most popular wine of the night seemed to the Le Rime Pinot Grigio. I actually reviewed this wine last year, if you’re interested in reading more about it!

Everyone had fun, and the combination of foods paired with the wines seemed to go over really well. I would absolutely serve this same menu again, since it seemed to be such a big hit!

Have you ever hosted a wine tasting party?

Bio
Latest Posts

Beeb Ashcroft

Owner & editor

As a bride-to-be and blogger, I'm sharing all my inspiration as I Blog My Wedding! From frugal wedding tips and DIY bridal crafts to classy bachelorette party ideas, you'll find nothing but the most "Engaging" reviews here!