potluck-style wine tastings made easy
Hosting a wine tasting can be complicated, expensive and intimidating.
Hosting a Wineluck Club tasting is not.
Hosting a wine tasting can feel daunting, even impossible, if you’re not already confident in your wine knowledge and tasting skills. On the other hand, the best way to learn is with friends and family, the people with whom you’re most comfortable and confident.
I created Wineluck Club so that you can easily host your own potluck-style tastings and create your own shared wine community, just like you would through a book club or cookbook club.
Each Wineluck Club tasting theme includes 6 wines. Just like a potluck meal assigns guests to bring appetizers, mains, sides, desserts and drinks to create a “complete” meal, Wineluck Club tastings include the wines that best create a “complete” themed tasting.
There will always be 6 wines in a Wineluck Club tasting, but they’re specifically ordered so that if you only have 4 guests, you can assign just the first 4 wines. If you have 5 guests, assign the first 5 wines, and so on. I recommend aiming for at least 4 wines in a Wineluck Club tasting. Being able to compare several wines makes for a richer experience. Limiting each tasting to 6 wines also helps avoid choice overload and palate fatigue, so that you can really zoom in on what you taste.
How it Works
Guest-wise, it’s up to you to choose whether each person brings 1 wine, or each couple or set of friends brings 1 wine together to split the costs and expand the group.
I share new tasting themes each week here and via the newsletter, so the fun doesn’t have to stop. Feel free to choose to start with whichever tasting sounds most interesting to you. Wineluck Club is not a wine course that you should complete in any specific order, though if you complete every tasting, you’ll probably end up qualified to pass some of those wine exams anyway.
Gather your besties or invite your friends to invite their friends.
Happy tasting!
Being the Host
Being a host is both a treat and a burden. You get to set the mood, control the environment, create a memorable gathering for people you love and people you don’t even know that you’ll love yet.
It’s also work. You’re “on” for the evening, even if you’re naturally introverted. You’re responsible for the planning and communication around the event, for setting expectations, for preparing all of the accoutrements that go with a wine tasting.
You’ll also get the most out of it, since you’re the one thinking about it the most. So. Both a treat and a burden.
If you’re up for it, you can be a catalyst. You can be the reason why deep connections, delightful memories, and of course, confident wine tasters now exist in your life.
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Send the invite, and be sure to request guest RSVPs by a date 1-2 weeks before the tasting. If you select a tasting where the wines are more difficult to find, try to give guests at least 2 weeks to find their wines. Each tasting theme will include a note about the level of difficulty of finding the included wines, as well as alternatives where appropriate.
Once your guests are confirmed, assign the wines!
One day before the tasting, send a reminder to your guests to chill their wines as indicated in their assignments.
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Check the order of the tasting. It should follow the order listed in the tasting theme, from first to last.
Serving an aperitif like a sparkling wine as guests arrive is a thoughtful way to buy yourself more time to set things up and open the wines.
Be sure to have spit cups or buckets handy, as well as water. You can provide snacks or meals for your guests as you wish. Ideas are included in each tasting theme.
Don't forget to cast a vote for everyone's favorites at the end of the tasting!
Set the date, time and place for your next tasting. It's always easier to do this with most of your guests already there, calendars in hand. The host selects the next tasting theme.
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If there is leftover wine (there usually is), feel free to divvy it out amongst your guests, keep it for yourself, cook with it, mix it into cocktails or even freeze it for later cooking use. Depending on the type of wine, it can last between a few days to a week or more in your fridge.
Send a quick recap to your guests. This can be as simple as a text with the link to the tasting theme you covered and the name or a picture of the favorite wine of the night.
Please share your favorite wines of the night using #wineluckclub or tagging @wineluckclub on Instagram or TikTok.
FAQs
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This really depends on how your friends prefer to communicate. I've used calendar invites with emails, Doodle, Facebook events, Eventbrite and WhatsApp group chats. The best solution for you is the one that will get used by your people.
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This depends on where you live. Alcohol being regulated as much as it is means that every state and country will have their own retail options and limitations. Get online and search, or make friends with your local wine shop people. Most of us in the wine trade love this stuff, and will only be too happy to help you.
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Unfortunately, it’s impossible to make sure that each guest spends the exact same amount on their respective wines for your Wineluck Club tasting. However, I do my best to select options in which most of the wines listed for each tasting will have similar price ranges, so you can discuss a preferred target spend that makes sense for you and your friends if you’d like. Hosts can also just leave it up to guests to decide what they want to spend, based on their own budgets and preferences.
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Professional wine tastings generally only provide bread of some kind. Baskets of cubed sourdough, hard Italian breadsticks, various styles of crackers. If more substantial food is offered, it's usually at a separate table, so that the smells don't disrupt from the wine tasting experience.
If that approach works for you, go for it. If you prefer to prepare snacks or meals based on the theme, ideas are included in each tasting. You know your own budget, preferences and friends, and you get to decide how your Wineluck Club tastings will flow.
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It might sound redundant to serve wine before a wine tasting, but it can make things easier for you as the host. Sparkling wine or a wine-based cocktail are easy go-to's for aperitifs, and they can give your guests something to hold and sip as everyone arrives, which also frees you up to take their wines and get them opened and lined up for the tasting.
If you need your guests to hold on to their wine glasses for the tasting, be sure to mention this as you’re handing them their aperitifs. Be sure to have your dump bucket(s) visible and easy to reach for guests who prefer not to finish their aperitifs before getting started with tasting.
If you serve a wine-based cocktail with strong flavors, it’s a good idea to provide a fresh wine glass for the tasting, or ask guests to rinse out their glasses before starting. This can be done with a water pitcher and dump bucket, or just at your sink.
If you need your guests to hold on to their wine glasses for the tasting, be sure to mention this as you’re handing them their aperitifs. Be sure to have your dump bucket(s) visible and easy to reach for guests who prefer not to finish their aperitifs before getting started with tasting.
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As a host, it’s a good idea to keep an ice bucket on hand for these little emergencies. Another trade tip is to wrap the bottle in a wet paper towel and stick it in the freezer to chill for at least 10 minutes, if you can spare it. Just don’t forget that it’s in there!
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You can host a Wineluck Club tasting with just 6 wine glasses, which is the amount that comes in many different sets. That said, it’s never a bad idea to have extra glasses, whether for aperitifs, or because a guest forgot which glass is theirs, or for when (not if) a glass breaks. There are plenty of inexpensive options that will do the job, like these.
If you don’t have the budget to buy or storage space in your place, consider renting glassware for your tasting.
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I like to keep Wineluck Club tastings casual, just like any other kind of potluck gathering. In that spirit, I usually line up the wines in the recommended tasting order, and then let guests pour for themselves and taste at their own pace as we chat and compare notes. There should be plenty of wine, assuming you have 1-2 guests per bottle. It’s also an option to show your guests what a tasting pour looks like before everyone gets started, since a tasting pour is just half (or less) of a standard glass of wine.
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You’d think this would preclude participation from Wineluck Club, but it really doesn’t. I have had stretches of time during which drinking alcohol was not an option, and I still safely participated in plenty of wine tasting events. I just chose to taste and spit the wine. I still got to taste, learn and be social without actively imbibing. This is one of several reasons why I recommend always offering water and including a spittoon in your tastings events.