Wine Tasting Fundraiser

[NewYorkTexan]

A friend emailed me for suggestions on ways to make a wine tasting fun. It is a fundraiser for her PTA.

They will have the wine donated and attendees will be all over the map in terms of wine knowledge.

I suggested using wine aroma wheels like these Wine wheel

Any other suggestions??????

[docsconz]

Taste the wines blind or at least some of them. That would be particularly fun to do after using an aroma wheel.

[Kim WB]

First, if there are first time wine tasters there, be sure they are aware oif the basics...rinsing, spitting, etc...this will improve traffic flow and make everyone more comfortable. give out a note pad with wine info, reviews, room for comments, wtih golf pencils. Add a few wine cartoons if you can, or at least some enjoyable wine related quotes. Of course, a fundraiser should have raffles, including some good wine reference books. you can have people make their own very simple rubber band wine charms for thier glasses. I've worked with a local wine shoppe to give a portion of sales to the PTA for the wines featured, with little coupons. Giant Maps are crowd pleasaers...men seem to congregate beneath them and look up wonderously at them, don't ask me why. for a more advanced crowd, you can play the "parallel game"...matching up wine regions with their counterparts in other countries, geographically from the equator. Of course, the best way to have a successful tasting is to have really good wines!

[RobInAustin]

The one I did that was a huge hit was a "Meritage" tasting (and the word is Merit-egz NOT Meri-tazhe, per Meritage Society name is from Merits of Heritage). tasted blind a couple of cabs, merlots, Cab Francs, a Petit Verdot (only Murphy Goode makes one that I know of) and a Malbec. THEN talked about basic blending, either Cab based or Merlot based, then had people blend their own Meritage. Lastly, we tasted a Calif. Meritage and a Bordeaux to see how experts do it. Was alot of fun...Even the newbies got into it, and was challenging enough for more advanced folks too.

Cheers,

Rob

Edited January 18, 2005 by RobInAustin (log)

[NewYorkTexan]

Some great suggestions, thanks so much.

[Mnehrling]

A friend emailed me for suggestions on ways to make a wine tasting fun.  It is a fundraiser for her PTA.

They will have the wine donated and attendees will be all over the map in terms of wine knowledge. 

I suggested using wine aroma wheels like these Wine wheel

Any other suggestions??????

←

No spitting allowed will always make it fun.

[wattacetti]

We had a winetasting session as the "fun" activity at a departmental meeting. To get people into it, there was the following after the basics were covered:

- blind tasting (bottles covered and the wine pre-poured into opaque glasses)

- guess the plonk

- geography guessing

Some people got into a spitting contest (erk), and there was a lively discussion as to who wound up sounding the most pretentious in their descriptions.

[Brad Ballinger]

David,

About how many people? This is really a key piece of information. What you are able to spend on wine will depend greatly on how many people will be drinking wine. Also, will there be PTA members there who don't drink?

[NewYorkTexan]

David,

About how many people?  This is really a key piece of information.  What you are able to spend on wine will depend greatly on how many people will be drinking wine.  Also, will there be PTA members there who don't drink?

←

Brad-

All excellent questions.....unfortunately I do not have any answers. I am trying to help a friend who lives on Long Island.

My assumption is that the event is targeting parents who either enjoy wine or are willing to buy tickets for this event to support the PTA. I am going to guess attendance will be in the range of 25-35 drinkers, but this is just a guess. Since the wines will be donated, there is probably a budget for tasting accessories, items to raffle off, snacks, etc. Does this help?

[Brad Ballinger]

Thanks, David.

I can understand the reasons people may have for suggesting contests (guess this, guess that), but those usually have side effects of being feeling less smart than when they showed up. Since this is for the PTA, I'd make it as educational as can be.

One thing that has gone over well is to have critic-written tasting notes for some of the wines you have and people try to match the note to the wine. I wouldn't give a prize for it, but would use it to teach that different people will taste different things. It's really fun if you can have multiple notes on the same wine from multiple sources.

If there is a chance for a "program," it would be nice to have someone say a few words and handle some Q and A, especially if there are novices who would like to learn.

I'd also have something to drink other than wine. Some people be all "wined out" before others. Have lots of water on hand.