With everything going on around us, having an intimate dinner with your Mom, wine and a little friendly wine competition sounds like a fabulous idea. In fact, what could be better? Let The Party Goddess! show you how to have a blast (ON THE CHEAP) and actually learn something in the process!
Facts & Figures:
* It takes about 2 ? pounds of grapes to make a bottle of wine.
* About 800 gallons of wine are produced from one acre of grapevines.
* The corkscrew was designed in the mid-1800’s.
* Over 10,000 varieties of wine grapes exist in the world today!
* California produces over 17 million gallons of wine annually.
* There are approximately 85 calories in a four ounce glass of red wine.
* The Mesopotamians were credited with producing the first wines in 6000.
* 400 grapevines generally make up an acre.
Tips and Trick:
1. Mix it up – Feature a bunch of different wines in all kinds of price categories from SUPER cheap Two Buck Chuck to crazy expensive. See if your guests really can
tell the difference. Make SURE to disguise the labels.
2. Be tricky – Pick four to six wines to serve from cheap to crazy expensive and hide the bottles (in a sock, wine sleeve, whatever). This time though, just put the dollar amount and the type of wine on the tag (ie – chardonnay , $87/bottle). Then ask your guests to describe why they think that wine is more expensive than the other wine labeled “chardonnay $12.” The TRICK is that you’ve really mixed up the wines. The most expensive are really the cheapest and vice versa. SO FUN!
3. Create a Wine IQ test – Pick four kinds of wines, all different: a shiraz, merlot, cabernet, etc and cover the bottles. Then see if the guests can actually tell you which one is the shiraz and which is the merlot – you’ll be surprised!
4. Make it a pot luck – The hostess cooks the dinner (and tells everyone what she’s serving) and then the guests have to bring their favorite wine that they think will go with the dinner. At the end of the night, guests get to decide which they actually think tasted the best with the meal and why.
5. Discuss the defaults – We all have defaults in life – that one go-to gift we
always bring in a pinch, the batch of cookies we make when we can’t think of anything else. Have your guests bring (or just tell everyone) what their “default” bottle of wine is and why. The stories will make the dinner! (For example, Jack might always buy a great bottle of Grgich as a gift because he got one when he graduated from college and thought it was really special.)
6. For wine sophisticates, pick a theme – Decide that you’re going to taste 6 different California chardonnays and taste and rate them according to a fun wine wheel that you hand out to your guests at the beginning of the evening (they can keep the wheel as a fun favor). Guests then write down the characteristics that THEY taste in the wine and then compare notes.
Love it? We want to hear what you have done to throw a party on a budget.. Comment below.
Great wine party tips and fun activities…whether for Mother’s Day or any time!