How to Host a Blind Wine-Tasting

We all know someone who’s a wine snob, amiright? He won’t drink wine that’s less than $30/bottle or she doesn’t like chardonnay. It's too "oakey."

A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a blind-wine tasting party for my co-workers. The point to a blind wine tasting is to get over these judgments. No one knows what brand or grape he or she is drinking, or the price. Every time I’ve done this, we’ve been surprised at the results. 

Surprisingly, it went really well! We didn’t just get stupid drunk (until the end anyway) and nobody called in sick the next day. Win-win. My friend Kristin is an aspiring sommelier and she gave us a few things to consider as we tasted, like color, legs, holding it up to the light, what to look for in a finish, smell, etc. We all walked away with a new wine we liked (brand or grape), and at a reasonable price point.

Want to host a tasting yourself? Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Create the guidelines. I asked each guest to bring a bottle of red or white wine that costs $20 or less. We’ve also done it where guests only bring red or white wine. It’s up to you the general type of wine and the price point. 

Brown-bagged wine

Create a tasting sheet. Using trusty Excel, I created a tasting sheet for guests to score the wines. Across the top, I put space for wine color, aroma, taste/flavor and finish. I also included a column for Overall Quality Score, Tasting Notes and a spot for the guests to ask the price. Down the left hand side, I wrote “Wine #1” and so on.

Create a key. Since I was the host, when guests arrived, they gave me their wine, which I put into a numbered brown bag. They told me the type of wine and the price point, which I wrote down in the key. I did not reference the key until later, so that I wouldn’t know anything, either.

Provide food. I supplied a variety of dips, crackers, cheeses, meats, etc. These are essential when drinking copious amounts of wine, and also come in handy when cleansing the palette. 

Quite the spread, no?

Don’t forget a spit jar and water. To my dismay, not everyone wants to drink every drop of wine in their glass, even if they don’t like it. Keep a pitcher on hand for guests to pour out wines if they don’t want to finish the pour.

Spit jar and water on the right!

Discuss wines! What I loved about our group is that we all genuinely tasted the wines. We smelled, held it up to the light, took turns guessing the grape variety and had thoughtful discussions about the wine. Granted some of the discussions were “This smells like wet dog,” but others were about how we detected chocolate or banana in the aroma.

Guess and reveal. Once we tasted all of the wines, we took a vote on our favorite white and our favorite red, and then guessed how much those cost. I got out my trusty key, and for each wine, everyone guessed what the grape was and how much it cost. Most of the time, we were wrong, but it was still a blast.

Drink up and enjoy! Once our favorites were revealed, we drank the remaining wine — all 15 bottles and had the best time. But be careful not to spill, as witnessed below.

 

The results of our tasting were fascinating. We had a range of wines, from $2.99 up to $19.99. Both of our favorite wines were $3.99 from Trader Joe’s. Our second favorite was $19.99.

The aftermath. 

Below are the wines if you’re interested. I swear by the Vinas Chillenas…it’s always in my fridge and I even served it at the wedding!

Wine on the left was $19.99. Both others are $3.99 at Trader Joe's!

Enjoy! 

MWF Seeks Travel Advice

Hey ya'll! Happy Hump Day!

Despite unfortunate circumstances surrounding me, it's impossible to not be in a good mood today. The sun is shining. The air is warm. My besties and Mama are coming to town this weekend. I'm having a good hair day.

And best of all, next week I'm going on vacation! Bryan and I are celebrating our 2-year wedding anniversary on May 28. We decided a long time ago that we'd take an anniversary trip every year and so far, we're sticking to it. Last year we went to Santa Barbara, which was amazing, and this year, we're heading to Savannah, Georgia and Hilton Head, South Carolina.

I can't wait.

I've never been to either place, and I LOVE visiting new places. We're staying at both the Sheraton and Westin in Savannah, and at the Westin in Hilton Head. All look amaze.

 Hilton Head

Savannah

We definitely plan to hit the beaches in Savannah and obviously in Hilton Head. We're also going to dinner at the Olde Pink House in Savannah. Some other recommendations we've gotten are:

• Historic home tours 
• River Street
• City Market
• Drinks at Rocks on the River
• Avoid Paula Deene's

Thought I'd ask you all my lovelies for travel tips in Savannah and/or Hilton Head. Restaurant tips? Must-sees or do's? Let me know!

Unrelated, on Monday I told you about a good friend who passed from cancer last week. I don't know about you, but, I'm sick of going to funerals for people who have had cancer. I'm writing a letter to this stupid disease, and I wanted to ask my fans: If you had to say one thing to cancer, what would it be?

Monday Wins Again

Despite my best efforts, I can’t seem to quite get ahead of the game. One circumstance or another has managed to thwart my efforts of seemingly simple daily activities, such as writing on a daily basis or working out.

Last week, I learned the sad, sad news that a close family friend had passed away. Ellen Brown is my sister’s best friend’s mom, so we’ve known her and her family for many, many years. She has five beautiful daughters, many grandchildren with one on the way, and a husband she’s been married to for more than 30 years. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer last fall, and she passed away on Sunday, May 5. 

In light of this news, I changed up my weekend plans a bit. I drove home to Iowa on Thursday so that I could attend the services on Thursday evening and Friday morning. I got to spend some time with my family, and most importantly, with the Brown family to help them celebrate their mom’s life. 

On Saturday morning, I was woken up by crazy Sloanie, banging on my door and playing” Thrift Shop” on the phone. She must have known that I had to wake up early to pack up and drive back to Chicago. Christine (sister-in-law), Matt (her boyfriend) and Aly (my niece) drove to Chicago on Friday to visit us for the weekend, and I wanted to get home to see them, too.

Obligatory Sloanie photos, plus Jess & her beautiful friends.

The rest of the weekend we spent playing local tourist, which is fine by me once in awhile. When you live in city like Chicago, it’s easy to forget all of the things that make it what it is and what attracts so many others to come visit. We went to Navy Pier, the zoo, the aquarium, the Bean. We ate pizza and went bowling. (Where, by the way, I scored a whopping 40, coming in 4th place behind Aly. True story.) We had a nice Mother’s Day brunch, and we spent some evenings all together at home. It was the perfect mix of activity vs relaxing. Side note: I hate zoos. Poor little animals all look so sad. Free the animals!

Matt, Aly & Christine on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel; Aly patiently waiting for bowling; Christine & I boozin' it up!

And I couldn’t get enough of my sweet niece. She’s 5 and although it sounds weird, she finally likes me! you see, we went through a long phase of her only caring about Bryan. Every time I called her, she’d answer and say “Where’s Bryan?” Don’t get me wrong, she still loves her uncle—she said her favorite thing about visiting Chicago was tickling Bryan—but all this weekend, she just wanted to hold my hand, sit by me, walk with me, etc. It melts my heart.

 Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

 Monkeys and gorillas.

 Pretty polar bears.

Giraffes and zebras.

The only downside to the weekend is that Matt left this morning with a temperature and not feeling well, so cross fingers I don’t get sick.

Goofballs.

Cheers to making it through another week!