How to Host a Virginia Wine Tasting Party

Hello wine friends!

Last year, we hosted a blind wine tasting featuring "Wines from Around the World." I wrote all about it on the blog so definitely check out this post here. It features all the things you need to plan your own party so if you're looking for tips on how to host a blind wine tasting. As a follow-up I wanted to share my experience hosting a tasting, Virginia Wine Edition. 

We sent an invite to all our friends indicating that they should bring any single varietal Virginia Wine. With lots of great options, we were excited to see what they would bring. After much deliberation, I chose a Cabernet Franc from Gabriel Rausse. If you've been following along for a while you know that this is one of my favorite varietals AND wineries! So I was excited to see what other people thought!

Well we started the night with our friends arriving who had brought the most liked bottle of wine from last year, Cabernet Sauvignon from Barboursville. Of course they had to bring it again to see if it could continue to stand its ground being the most popular. Well the next couple of people arrived and what did they bring? The SAME wine! And same with the next couple after that! All in all we ended up with FOUR bottles of Cab Sauv. I was definitely starting to freak out a little because my VA wine stash isn't that big right now as we have been going through them. Luckily a couple of people had brought 2 wines and enough did not bring B'ville so it was all okay! 

I decided to trick everyone by placing two of the Barboursville Cab Sauv's in the mix and snuck a couple of my own wines into the mix. About half of the people figured it out, and the others couldn't remember since it was the at the very end, and after lots of wine that they tasted the double! 

All in all it ended up being a blast per usual! If you haven't tried doing a blind wine tasting before,  I highly recommend it and you don't have to be a wine expert in any respect. My favorite thing is being able to compare the different wines side by side to see what I liked. The biggest surprise ended up being the Petit Manseng from Bluemont Vineyard. I had this leftover from a past visit in which we didn't hit our group minimum so I took home a few extra bottles and had not yet opened them. I would say this wine was one of the favorites! I also LOVED the Barboursville Viognier. This is typically another of my favorite varietals and it did not disappoint. And then of course my Gabriele Rausse Cabernet Franc was my favorite red! 

The biggest lesson learned for next time is to maybe assign varietals, or if you are doing the Around the World Edition assign a country, That way you get more variety in the mix which is always a good thing! 

If you have any thoughts or questions about this, please comment below! I would love to hear what you think. 

Cheers!

​Sarah