We live in NJ so we do not have too many wineries around us and while the ones that are close to us aren’t that great, it’s the atmosphere and the day spent with friends around a firepit in the Fall that makes going to the wineries so fun! This year, my husband had the brilliant idea to do a ‘winery day’ at home. Genius.
He also suggested our friends be the ones to host since they have a beautiful, large backyard in more of a farm/country setting with a fire pit (an essential element). They thankfully thought the idea was great and happily opened their home to host a wine mixer with our close friends!
We had 10 people in total and initially asked everyone to bring 1 bottle of wine per couple with a maximum cost of $25. We also figured that everyone could bring an appetizer of some sort that either complimented their wine or whatever they felt like bringing. We weren’t being too serious on the wine pairings since none of us really know what we are doing. It was more so just a reason to get together and do something different so don’t get mad with how we did things!
Everyone that was attending let everyone know the type of wine they were bringing ahead of time so we didn’t have duplicates and could taste an array of types. My husband and I wound up bringing 3 different kinds and everyone else seemed to bring multiple as well so having more than 1 bottle per couple actually worked out better. With the extra wine, we were able to split them up for the tastings into reds, whites, and sparkling/rosés. There were some duplicates but because we had so many to taste, it did not matter at that point and it added to the fun!
The Wine Tasting
The logistics of the tasting could be however you want to go about it. We chose to do 4 wines at a time strictly because we had 4 small chalkboards to label the wine 1-4 and our wine score cards had 4 listed at one time. We started with red only because we opened a bottle of red while deciding how we wanted to do the tasting and yes, we know that’s wrong. We went red, white, sparkling/rosé.
My friend found the cutest wine tasting scorecards in the dollar section in Target (amazing) but there are a ton you can get online at Etsy and print right at home. The scorecards had you rate the wine on aroma, flavor, finish, and overall. You then gave it your total rating by adding up the score and any notes about the wine. The wine tasting elements were rated 1-5 but they were labeled as no thanx, meh, basic, yum, and bottle please! It was so fun! In the end, we all put stickers on the bottle that was our favorite and least favorite based off the scores. The stickers were another amazing Target find! After that, we just enjoyed the wine and everyone’s company.
The Food
We made lots of charcuterie boards…we are aware that a real charcuterie board is just a platter of different meats but it’s just way more fun to say charcuterie board than picky foods boards so yes, I will forever refer to them as charcuterie boards. I made one that went with a salty and sweet theme and my friend had several with all different cheeses, meats, and small food items like olives, artichokes, figs, blackberries, etc. I have a blog post that goes over all of the details of my charcuterie board and how to achieve it so be sure to check that out if you are planning to make one! We winged it but it’s definitely helpful to know how much meat is really necessary because they can get very expensive! We made sure that dessert consisted of none other than apple cider donuts from local farms and Delicious Orchards (if you know, you know) because, Fall. My friend had the incredible idea to use plaid blanket scarves as table runners where the food was set up and made a cute fall scape center piece.
The Set Up
While it’s not all necessary, theming the wine tasting to Fall and having an extra cute set up is part of the fun. There were cozy blankets in case people got cold at night. The table where the wine was (aka the tasting area) had cute bails of hay, mums, and pumpkins on both sides. The table cloth had perfect fall colors and they strung bistro lights up around the tasting area.
The fire pit was surrounded by Adirondack chairs and there was corn hole and bocce ball set up in the yard!
Our winery / wine tasting at home idea was a success and we now want to make it an annual event! We will be sure to mix up the wines next time and definitely not include any Chardonay since that was everyone’s least favorite during the tasting!
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