Wine Tasting Party

When I was younger my nana used to tell me how much the two of us were alike – that we both loved to entertain – and she was right.  While some people can’t stand the idea of hosting a party, I love it. I love thinking about the details - the colors, sounds, smells and tastes and how they all work together to make something bigger than itself.  It’s a personal process that I pour myself into, so while I may not be an Italian grandmother showing her love through platefuls of pasta, I hope my guests can feel the love through the details. 

With the last bits of summer around the corner, my husband and I decided to host a wine tasting party with several good friends. We knew we wanted it to be on our porch and to feel intimate and fun, but our biggest dilemma was where to seat our 14 guests. I knew that it would probably take a little sweat to get the vision I wanted, but I was up for the task.  ​When we moved into our 120+ year old home, one of the first things we did was strip the doors in our house in hopes of being able to bring them back to their old glory. 

​Unfortunately, as old homes shift and move, some pieces just don’t fit together as they should. And as the kids have gotten older, the desire to have bedroom and bathroom doors that shut and remain shut has moved higher to the top of the priority list.  We now have new doors that fully shut but I was unable to bring myself to get rid of our original doors. So with 13 stripped doors in the basement, I told my husband that I was going to use them to build our tables for the night. I  found amazing mid-century hairpin legs that would hold the weight of the door. With a quick drill to each corner, we now had two long and narrow tables.  I left the original door plates on them, because why not - in my opinion, it is just more character. 

I set the table with votives from our wedding, old glass jars of white flowers, porcelain spittoons, 4 oz. wine tasting glasses, menu boards and tasting cards.
For the menu boards I cut planks of wood down to small 9-inch boards that I stained with a mix of Weathered Gray and Early America stain from Minwax. I used black rubber bands to wrap around the top of the boards and help secure the tasting cards in place.  I designed the tasting cards to go with the colors and theme for the night and personalized them with each guest’s name.   

​Finally, we let the games begin. Each guest brought 2 identical bottles of wine for the night. One bottle was stashed away while the other was slipped into a linen bag. As guests came in, I ordered the wines from lightest to darkest. 
Throughout the night, we tasted the wines blindly, wrote funny comments and enjoyed each other’s company. At the end my husband tallied the points for each bottle and read off the comments. The winner ended up taking home all the second bottles of wine each couple brought while the losing couple had to take their second bottle back home with them.  It was a great night with friends and wine…and the tables survived - and while they may have a few new stains on them, I’m going to chalk it up to character and memories.