Novice Wine Tasting?

I am planning to host a wine tasting for my work group in the near future. My group is composed of a dozen people who know little to nothing about wine, but are interested in experiencing it.

My thought is to have a series of paired comparisons within the same style or the same grape for them to sample – a light Prosecco with a Champagne brut, an oaked Cal Chard with a minerally French Chard, etc. all the way through a couple of desert wines. I was thinking of about five tasting pairs in total. The wine selections would not be terribly expensive, with a target of less than $30 per bottle. Most of the wines would be pulled from my cellar.

Does this seem like an interesting wine tasting for a group of relative novices to gain an appreciation for the diversity in even similar wines? My hope would be capture their imaginations and get them interested in exploring more on their own. Does anyone have other tasting suggestions for such a group?

I am planning to host a wine tasting for my work group in the near future. My group is composed of a dozen people who know little to nothing about wine, but are interested in experiencing it.

My thought is to have a series of paired comparisons within the same style or the same grape for them to sample – a light Prosecco with a Champagne brut, an oaked Cal Chard with a minerally French Chard, etc. all the way through a couple of desert wines. I was thinking of about five tasting pairs in total. The wine selections would not be terribly expensive, with a target of less than $30 per bottle. Most of the wines would be pulled from my cellar.

Does this seem like an interesting wine tasting for a group of relative novices to gain an appreciation for the diversity in even similar wines? My hope would be capture their imaginations and get them interested in exploring more on their own. Does anyone have other tasting suggestions for such a group?

It's a classic way of introduction. And I guess it's a classic since it works. But I think five pairings might be too much if they really aren't used to comparing wines. Remembering my introduction to wines, I think three or max four pairs would be better so one doesn't get sensory overload. One of the most successful early tastings I remember is one pair of fizz, one pair of reds and one pair of sweeties with appropriate food. It was informative but not overwhelming.

I agree with Otto. 5 pairings may be a tad too many. At the end, you could cover all bottles with foil and have everyone re-taste all the wines and do a "blind" tasting. You could make a game out of it. Since everyone has already tasted the wines, they would be going from recent memory. It could be fun.

I would try for at least one really good food pairing. I think giving the novices one extremely good match would be a great part of an introductory tasting.

Hi Sam,

I just did a wine tasting for novices and I have to agree that 5 pairings are a bit much.

Here is what I did:

I did 2 white wines and 2 red wines. And I went from lightest to heaviest wines in my tasting. I started out with tasting just the wine and then I had an appetizer picked out to go with each wine and had everyone taste the wine first and then taste it with the food.

My white wines were sauvignon blanc (New Zealand) and riesling (Dr. L).

My red wines were pinot noir (La Crema, Sonoma Coast) and cabernet sauvignon (OZ).

This tasting went quite well and the 8 people at the tasting were quite excited about how their perception of the wine changed when it was matched with food. They liked the Dr. L so well that it caused a minirush on the wine at our local wine store.

This approach exposed them to classic wine that varied from light and zippy to a relatively big red and the kinds of food to match them with. This was also a charity event and I raised $200 for our charity by donating the wine. Our charity was Forest without Borders and by the end of the tasting everyone agreed the next tasting should be Forests without Bordeaux. I held it at local restaurant which had a byob licence and they even knocked 20% off their usual corkage fee since it was for a charity. It worked out well.

I'd just add that a Gewurztraminer often goes down well at novice tastings. They may not have tasted it before, and it gives an insight into how different wines can be. I think it also instils confidence because it is easily recognisable. How you work into a pair is another matter - aromatic vs non-aromatic white? High vs low acidity?

well, I'll go against group grain and say go wth original plan. You say you are pulling from personal cellar, and unless you are generally a case buyer, this way you only need to do one bottle of each wine (for everyone to retaste, 12 people won't work with single bottle).
But if I was going to tweak.....
I'd skip the bubbles and dessert. 8 wines, 4 flights. First flight: Chardonnay vs Sauvignon Blanc (for former choose a Chard you think balanced and for latter choose a grassy/herbaceous SB). Second: Super buttery/oaked Chardonnay vs very crisp/unoaked Chard. Not too late to remember first Chard, and now you've demonstrated both varietal and style differences.
Third : classically styled CA PN vs CS
Fourth: leaner Burg vs OTT Cali PN.

Wow! I was away for a couple of days and was surprised by all of the helpful suggestions when I got back on.

It seems that the general consensus is that 5 pairings are too many. I will re-evaluate and see what makes sense. I will also review all the suggestions on which pairing I should use.

My goal is to throw some mud at the wall and hope the something sticks. My entry into the wine world came when I told a German that all wine tasted the same while on business in the Mosel area of German. He was offended enough that he sent me home with a Spatlese and BA to compare - thus began our downfall. I hope to give my co-workers the opportunity to complicate their lives in a similar fashion.

Thanks again everyone.

I'm with Otto, too. I did a tasting just like this and went with the theme "How to taste wine", just keeping things simple for now. I used two white and two reds but spoke only to the proper way to open the bottle, seeing, smelling and sipping. (I would of course answer any questions that come up even if they were beyond my original scope.)
I will get into grape type comparisons and more detail about wine production, etc., as the classes continue.

Hi,

My 2 cents:

My rule of thumb is always one bottle for 2 persons.
for a dozen this means only three flights.

You can go for four, but introduce them to the art of spitting.
People with no experience in wine tasting may go bottoms up before you finish speaking about smelling the wine.

I always do blind tasting, just to prevent reading labels.

Bubbley for a start will be fine. First wine is served before sitting down. This gives the Cocktail party effect.
Prosecco and Champagne are too far apart. I would go for a Champagne and a Blanc de blan (Champagne method) from another region.

Two Chards for the white flight and then two red flights, one old world and one new world, or compare same blend old vs new.

I would skip the desert wines, or maybe offer just one bottle to end up the evening.

Eli

I am planning to host a wine tasting for my work group in the near future. My group is composed of a dozen people who know little to nothing about wine, but are interested in experiencing it.

(sorry this is late...just now up and around following surgery)

For the last 15 years my wife has prevailed on me to hold an "Introduction to Wine" shindig once a year or so for friends/coworkers, most of whom are vino novices like your work group. In fact, the majority are in the "all red wines tastes the same, all white wines taste the same" camp. Having a gang like that try samples of reds that don't taste like bathtub Chianti and whites with no relation to warmed pinot grigio is far more instructive (and entertaining!) to them than being hit right off the bat with a 200- level course. Like how terroir can nuance grape variety. I do touch on the subject, but that's it. At their level they need to be bludgeoned with the Cudgle Of Obvious, otherwise they go glaze-eyed very quickly. That's been my experience, anyway. (Of course, this may more be a reflection of the class of people we tend to associate with. Your own circle may be farther up the scale.)

I wrote about one of those tasting events in my blog two years ago, in which I included a list of the value wines I chose for that particular group. This selection went over very well. with each person finding at least one wine a real eye opener. If you're interested, the list is here: http://dangerspouse.diaryland.com/121021_16.html and the report on how it went is here: http://dangerspouse.diaryland.com/121023_92.html. (Ahhhhh...I'll apologize in advance for any offense if you decide to click. I write mostly to make my trailer-trash wife laugh, and that's her level of "humor".)

Ok, back I go to the percoset-and-ice-wrap sanctuary....

At their level they need to be bludgeoned with the Cudgle Of Obvious

One of the reasons I mentioned Gewurz,