How to set up your own wine tasting - FAQ

Questions and answers

What do I need to host a tasting?

First of all, select and buy your wines (these can be your own personal preferences or some bottles you’ve never tried before).

What you will need:
• A good table
• A spittoon (optional)
• Paper, pens and a tasting sheet
• A sink
• 1 glass per person

You may also want to buy some food or crackers and provide some water.

You can find tasting sheets and the Decanter tasting kit can be downloaded.

What is the Wine Options game?

Players compete to guess, eventually, the name, grape variety and vintage of a wine.

The host starts off by asking very general questions such as ‘is this an Old World or New World wine?’, gradually getting more precise, asking for a guess of the vintage (‘is it pre-2000 or post-2000’) and whether or not the wine is Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir. Those giving the wrong answer in each round must sit down and are eliminated from the game until the producer and year (and possibly grape variety) has been correctly deduced or until there is no one left in the game.

What is a vertical tasting?

A vertical tasting compares the wines of one estate or producer. This will show the evolution of the wine and the effect different growing conditions have on the production of a wine.

A horizontal tasting compares wines from a specific region and vintage.