Wine tasting in a private setting is an excellent way to combine wine enjoyment, wine experience and socialising. Even without the tasting serving the analytical judgement of wines, you can broaden your wine horizon in an interested group.

The following utensils should be prepared:

• white tablecloth (to assess the colour)
• Wine glasses with a stem, rather large - two glasses per person are useful because you often want to compare two wines directly with each other
• Corkscrew, preferably a waiter's knife
• Spittoon - several depending on the number of guests
• Container for emptying leftovers
• Water for drinking and rinsing the glasses
• Bread, savoury biscuits or neutral biscuits for in between - "neutralising" between wines is not necessary if the tasting order is correct, but most people find it difficult to taste several wines without eating something
• Paper and pens to take notes

Number of wines and guests

The number of wines to be tasted depends on the wine experience of the guests and also on how serious the tasting is. In a cosy group of less experienced wine drinkers, six different wines are completely sufficient, otherwise the guests will be sensory overloaded. For experienced wine drinkers, the guideline is 10 to 15 wines - a higher number only makes sense if experienced tasters come together.

There is also the problem of leftovers to consider: if a very small group (four people) tastes a total of ten different wines, you will end up with ten almost full bottles. The ideal number of guests for a wine tasting is eight to ten - with this number of people, one bottle per wine is sufficient and is emptied in reasonable quantities.

Selection of wines

There are no limits to the imagination when selecting the wines. You can choose a theme for the tasting, e.g. specific grape varieties, growing regions or countries. Comparisons are also always interesting: stainless steel versus wood maturation, New World versus Old World, Rieslingchardonnay or Pinot Noir from Germany against other countries, etc.

The host can provide the wines, but he can also ask the guests to each bring a wine for the tasting - either according to the predetermined theme, or you can organise a surprise tasting where each guest brings a wine of their choice. In this case, it makes sense to agree on an upper price limit.

Further ideas and tips for organising wine tastings can also be found in relevant books.

Preparing the wines

Young, full-bodied wines need sufficient air before tasting so that the oxygen can break down the flavours. However, it is a challenge to decanting - who has five or even ten decanters in the house?

A simple solution is to pour the wines into the carafe and then pour them back into the bottle (for which a funnel is essential). Before refilling, it is advisable to rinse the bottle with clear water for wines with sediment. This allows you to serve several wines aerated with only one carafe in the house - whereby the carafe should of course also be rinsed thoroughly with water between the wines.

Order of the wines

The correct order of the wines is important for a successful tasting. There are several rules for this, which should be sensibly combined based on the selected wines:

• White wine before rosé wine before red wine
• similar wines (e.g. of the same grape variety) directly after each other
• Stainless steel ageing before wood ageing
• in ascending order of residual sugar, i.e. dry wines before sweet wines
• in ascending order of alcohol content
• ascending according to quality levels(designations of origin, predicates)
• conventional wines before natural wines

Handling glasses

Glasses can be rinsed with water between each wine. However, this is not necessary if the tasting sequence is correct. Once wetted with wine, the glass is "avinated" or "wine-green", i.e. it has a certain basic wine aroma (because wine is clearly identifiable as wine even beyond all aromatic details and differs from fruit juice or beer in sensory terms). This allows many specific, subtle flavours of the individual wines that are tasted afterwards to stand out better. Between very different wines or after a faulty wine and also before the first wine, the glass should always be rinsed with water.

A tried and tested method of rinsing the glass before each new wine - and especially before the first one - is to simply rinse it with water to rinse with wineit is also a good idea to simply rinse the glass with a sip of water: pour and swirl the glass so that the entire inner wall is wetted with wine. This first sip can also be passed from one glass to the next, as it will be poured out at the end anyway.

Blind tasting or open tasting

In social gatherings, wine tasting is usually done openly, i.e. all guests know exactly which wine will be poured into each glass. This has the advantage that the sensory impressions can be directly related to the grape variety, the origin and the winery.

A professional tasting, on the other hand, is usually a Blind tastingi.e. the bottle label is concealed and the guests either know nothing at all about the wine or at most the grape variety(ies) or the origin. To cover the bottles, there are sleeves made of fabric or corrugated cardboard that can be put over the bottles. Alternatively, aluminium foil can be used to wrap the bottles. The capsule and cork should also be removed before the bottle is brought to the tasting table, as they can also provide clues about the producer. If you want to be really precise, you even have to decant the wines into neutral bottles, because the shape or colour of the bottle can also reveal something about the contents.

During a blind tasting, all bottles must be numbered so that they can be clearly identified.