First wine tasting for beginners
Make the sheets View: A4 · Letter
For a first tasting the guests need two things: a sheet they cannot get wrong and a page that tells them what to do. The guessing sheet gives each glass a numbered ring and a short column: five small rings for a score, a single word, a guess and what they would pay. The how-to page lies in the middle of the table: How to taste in four steps (look, smell, taste, decide), the five score rings explained from Not for me to I'd buy a bottle, and six words to start with, Fruity, Fresh, Dry, Smooth, Light and Warm, each with a line on what it means. Nobody has to know a grape. The host sheet keeps the answers and a scoreboard. It suits a group of friends new to wine, two to twelve around the table, and four to six bottles.
Before the first pour, read the four steps aloud and taste glass one together, so everyone sees how a column is filled. After that let people go at their own pace and compare words out loud, since hearing someone else say fresh is how the words start to mean something. Reveal the wines at the end with the reveal cards, and let each guest say which word fitted best. Print one guest sheet per person, the host sheet, the how-to page for each table, the tags and the reveal cards. Choose bottles that contrast, with one white, one light red and one big red at least. The how-to page itself says it: there are no wrong answers. Taste, spit, and keep water on the table, which beginners often forget.
Questions
How do you host a wine tasting when nobody knows much about wine?
Keep it simple: four to six clearly different wines, a sheet with stars and one word for each glass, and a page that explains how to taste. Guests only have to say what they like, and the reveal does the teaching.
What wines should beginners taste first?
Wines that taste very different from each other: a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, a buttery Chardonnay, a light Pinot Noir and a big Shiraz or Malbec. Contrast teaches faster than subtle differences.
More pages like this
Wine tasting sheets by kindWine tastings by occasionWine tasting sheets by grape