Myself and 4 other couples that we know get together every other month to taste wines.
The idea is that host home selects the theme and wines and also sources them.
Last year when I hosted I chose Sauvigon Blanc and served the following:
Sancerre - Cotat Cailottes
Bordeaux - Carbonnieux Blanc (75% SB)
New Zealand - Greywacke
California - Ladera
Italy - Schiopetto
The other tasting themes that our friends hosted were: Wines of the Santa Cruz mountains, Tuscany & Piedmonte, and Wines from Turkey.
I’m up to host in June and am looking for ideas for a wine theme.
I have access to some good wine shops, Weimax and K&L are in my “backyard”.
We used to do this all the time - it can be educational. I assume all the wines are blind and served at once?
I used to like to do comparisons, but you don’t have to. For example, you can do Syrah from the N. Rhone vs Sonoma, or PN from Burgundy vs Sonoma - try Wind Gap, Anthill, Halcon as the US versions.
Or maybe try Albarino - they’re trying it in CA and you can find a number of Spanish versions. Or maybe blends from different regions - a lot of people are doing white Rhone blends all over, that could be fun. We’ll try some rosés in the next few days, probably PN rosé from Austria, Germany, CA, and OR.
Good luck. I hope you pick something fun. I like your format too, rather than have everybody bring something random.
all wines brought could have a “stick” or “stone” on the label art (be as loose/tight as you like with that), or something “stick” or “stone” related in terms of winery name, AVA, or vineyard designate (e.g. something from Rockpile).
Riesling! Such an expressive grape, thrives in many different expressions. You could keep it worldwide like your SB dinner, or narrow it down and either way you’ll have a diverse number of wines.
Tomorrow, we are having a Pinot Noir tasting with people bringing wines from Oregon, France, and California. We will serve blind and compare! I think blind testing with a theme makes for great conversation!
In 2012 after my first visit to Champagne we did a tasting of 6 different cuvées with our friends. With the wine it was sushi and cheeses from the Champagne region or nearby (Chaource, Langres, Affinée au Chablis etc). Everyone loved it even though most had never tried a grower Champagne before. Ever since we’ve done the same thing, obviously always with different Champagnes, either once or twice a year with the same participants. Already the first time around it was very clear to everyone what a huge variety of different styles this appellation produces and not once has anyone suggested we try a different theme. However on one occasion we did it blind to taste three Champagnes with three high quality Cavas which was interesting but as everyone strongly preferred the Champagnes we returned to our old ways right after.
If you have not had this theme yet I strongly suggest you give it a go. I think it’s just a ton of fun to compare growers to grande marques, blanc de blancs to blends, blanc de noirs and rosés, wines from different villages and of course different vintages. I’ve understood that K&L has a good selection of Champagnes so it should be very easy for you to put together a great tasting with this theme.
I do 5-6 private tastings per year for a group of 15-16 tasters (since 2000) coming from Austria, Germany, even GB and Luxembourg.
My mailing list is 30+ adresses.
My themes this year:
Pomerol
Burgundy and Rhone 2016
Vosne-Romanee Malconsorts + NSG Aux Boudots
France 1990ies
Vosne-Romanee Village + 1erCrus
Next year:
St.Emilion
Burgundy and Rhone 2017
Puligny & Chassagne-Montrachet
If you don´t have wines like these available, why not:
I’ve done regional dinner tastings many times. With Piedmont, for instance, you can start with whites (arneis, timarossa, nascetta – or possibly even a Vajra or Germano dry riesling), then move through a variety of reds (pelaverga, grignolino, barbera, dolcetto) before getting to nebbiolo.
Similarly, in the Rhone, you could have several different white grapes (marsanne, roussane, viognier), as well as syrah and Southern blends of grenache/mourvedre/syrah etc.
I’ve also done structurally organized tastings: “crisp whites” (Muscadet, Sancerre, albarino). I did a flight of traditional, restrained 99s once (Volnay, Brunello and Barbaresco) that were so similar they were hard to tell blind.
Also, a flight of “big” Italian reds – Barolo/Barbaresco, Brunello, Sagrantino di Montafalco and an aglianico.
Two years or so ago I hosted a tasting of white wines beginning with V: vernaccia, verdicchio, vermentino and some other Spanish and Italians ones that escape me now.
Wines of Greece
Second wines of Bordeaux versus another wine from same region eg Alter Ego of Ch. Palmer versus Giscours etc
Tannat : Uruguay versus Madiran.
Etc
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