A blind tasting works best when you want to compare different varieties of grape such as Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Shiraz, and Pinot Noir. It can add a bit of fun to these wine tasting party ideas because it gets your guests more involved. This can work well as an ice breaker or for parties with large numbers.
You want your guests to enjoy some great tasting wines and maybe learn something new along the way. The last thing you want is for people to feel intimidated or that they can't contribute.
Price Wars
One of my favorite wine tasting party ideas is a variation on a blind tasting. Make half the wines affordable everyday wines and the other half more expensive fine wines. Have everyone taste the wines blind and rank them in order of price from low to high, along with their reasons and which they preferred. You might be surprised to find expensive wines ranking low and vice versa
If numbers are small, say 6 -12 people, I think it's preferable to seat everyone around a table and structure it like a dinner party. This way, not only is there plenty of space for glasses and bottles, but it creates an intimate environment for everyone to discuss and share. Plus you can control the pace of the wine tasting more easily, moving onto the next one when everybody is ready. So let the size of your table dictate the best number of guests. Alternatively, for a more relaxed vibe you could arrange everyone on soft chairs around a smaller coffee table in the middle of your sitting room. You can apply these wine tasting party ideas to either set up.
Make sure you provide plenty of supplies for people to take notes; that includes not only paper and pens, but also clipboards or other flat writing surfaces, in case your table ends up covered in wineglasses. Offer plenty of water and spittoons (opaque plastic cups work), as well as a dump bucket. Ask folks to rank their favorite wines in order, or ask everyone to score on the same numeric scale, and then you can average the scores or figure out the group's order of preference. I suggest unveiling the wines starting with the group's lowest-scoring bottle. Have fun!
The wine labels are hidden and guests try to identify the country, grape, and perhaps the price point from the appearance, aroma, and taste of the wine.
Bear in mind if your guests aren't already familiar with different wines, a blind tasting can be a bit of a wild stab in the dark. Therefore, I think it's a good idea to print off some short descriptions explaining the qualities and flavors associated with the different wines—to help guide people in the right direction.
For example, if you're tasting three white wines provide short notes about four of five different white wines (always provide more descriptions than wines so some act as 'red herrings' and they can't just work out which is which by process of elimination). So if one of your wines is a Viognier the notes might explain that it is a dry wine that typically has a deep golden color with a powerful, rich aroma like apricots and orange blossoms and a distinctive tropical fruit flavor of apricot, peach or pineapple and a creamy mouth feel. Your guests can then refer to their notes when tasting each wine to see if they can identify which wine is which by recognising its flavor profile.
As they taste and discuss each wine, have your guests make a note of which they think it is, the country of origin, the price point, and which is their favorite. At the end reveal all the answers and see who has correctly identified the most wines. It's often interesting to see whether people preferred the old world wines or the new world ones, or the cheaper ones to the more expensive. Sometimes it turns out to be the opposite of what's expected—that's the beauty of a blind tasting.