Looking for inspiration to host a wine tasting birthday party? PL&Co. has you covered!
My (middle) sister recently turned 40. I have two sisters (I’m the baby) and all three of us love wine. To make my sister’s 40th extra special, we decided to choose six wines we believed she would enjoy, but would also be “new” to her. We then paired each one with a cheese and menu item. My oldest sister and I found the wines, as well as the cheese, while my mother curated the menu. This was an easy feat for her, as she had the most charming cooking school inside our home for over 20 years!
The Wine Tasting Tablescape & Ambience
Wine Tasting Tablescape – French Inspired
For the party, we decided to keep the tablescape simple with a French nod. The focus was a clean palette: whites, creams, shades of brown, crisp & clean glassware, rattan and a bit of black detailing. We added a few votives and fresh flowers from the garden to set the mood.
My mother and I pulled our wine glasses together to ensure we had enough for a clean glass for every wine. We are sticklers about having the correct wine glass for the each wine (when possible!) and we knew this detail would be important to my sister. We are not fans of finger-smudged glasses, or leftover sips of wine corrupting the next glass (if pouring a different wine). We’re a little over-the-top like that sometimes. (I even travel with my own stemmed wine glass when on vacation — I’ve been to enough AirBnBs that don’t have any!)
Wine Tasting Birthday Party Music
Music is, of course, a no brainer. When setting the mood for a party, I find it helpful to create a customized playlist a week or two ahead of the party. I will also take the time to peruse playlists on Spotify to see if someone else already created an awesome list. You can find just about anything you’re looking for on Spotify! If there’s nothing that strikes my fancy, I use the lists that have already been created and build my own.
The Flow of the Wine Tasting Birthday Party
To switch up the “feel” of the party, we shifted rooms throughout the night. We started more casually with a bubbly (Flora Prosecco, which is featured at Kingston Wine Co., one of the stops featured in PL&Co.’s Kingston blog) and chatted while milling around. Next, we moved into the living room as we enjoyed Argyle rosé and we passed the paired cheese and hor d’ouerve. We then moved to the table and, by the end of the night, we had settled outside for dessert. Just before being seated for dinner, I lowered the lighting to create a warm, intimate vibe.
The Menu for a Wine Tasting Birthday Party
This was fun. To create the menu for the wine tasting birthday party, we first chose six wines we thought my sister would enjoy. Our focus was on choosing a wine we new she loved: Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, and others we thought she would be excited to try.
Once we chose the wines, we then identified cheeses which paired well and we knew we could find fairly easily. My older sister lives in Manhattan, so she has access to a lot of options. Here’s a pic of our crazy planning process!
We then moved on to researching which foods pair well with each wine and sent the details to our mom. Because the food was her area, we let her do her thing. We knew we wouldn’t have anyone’s help prepping and plating the food and wanted my mother’s company at the party, so she tried to pull from her old recipes at the Gingercreek Cooking School to find choices that would pair well and she could prep ahead.
The Wine Tasting Birthday Menu in Action
When the birthday girl arrived, we greeted her at the door with the glass of Prosecco — bubbly always starts the party!
The Flora Prosecco was paired with triple cream brie (the bubbles cut the fat) and an orange and beet amuse-bouche.
Our next wine was the Argyle rosé. We chose burrata as the cheese, and halloumi, fresh garlic and tomato toasts as the food pairing.
Albariño was next on the list. This was delicious paired with Manchego and a mezze kataifi appetizer. We gobbled this up before I could snap a picture!
The birthday girl’s favorite (a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc) was next on the list — a Sauvignon Blanc called “Southern Ocean”. This was delicious accompanied by a bite of cheddar and “salad de fruits la mer” — essentially, seafood salad.
For dinner we chose a Sancerre, a wine we all love. Goat cheese was our paired cheese. My mom did an amazing job with roast pork medallions, roasted mushroom sauce and vegetable pilaf for dinner.
Lastly, we decided on a Beaujolais pairing for dessert. Feta drizzled with honey was a lovely compliment, followed by individual serving sizes of chocolate lava cake and vanilla bean ice cream. To make our lives easier, we bought pre-made chocolate lava cake from the Belgian Boys at Whole Foods. They came in lovely ribbed glass reusable jars, which was a great touch.
Wine Tasting Birthday Party Touches
Wine Tasting Invitation
Even though our wine tasting party was small, we wanted to formalize the event with an invitation, as we typically do for our gatherings. We used Paperless Post and modified a template. Here are a few good options if you’d like to do the same: Pop the Champagne template, Champagne Bottle template, Champers Pop template, Wine Overlap template, Wine Label template, Wine Salut template, Taro template, and Navy Blue template.
Wine Tasting Notes
I printed out De Long’s Wine Tasting Note Forms (they’re free!) and provided each guest with six, so we had one for each wine. It was a nice touch for those of us who wanted to remember the notes of each wine.
My oldest sister and I made it a point to research each wine and make note of the origin, the harvest and the notes of the wine. As we poured each wine, we took turns sharing the deets.
Dress for a Wine Tasting Party
To make my sister’s 40th wine tasting birthday party a little extra special, we indicated that the party was semi-formal on the invitation. We allowed shoes in the house for the night (welcome to our home with little kids!) to communicate how special the night truly was (ha!).
Furthermore, we also indicated that no kids were permitted. Harsh, I know. My middle sister and I each have two small children and we rarely have any quality time as adults together. So, hiring a babysitter was an extra detail that felt necessary and appreciated by all.
And there we have it — alllll the details for hosting a wine tasting birthday party of your own! I hope you’ve found some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing!
More festive inspiration:
What Wine for Blue Cheese? A Simple Pairing Guide
Seasonal + Simple Prosecco Cocktails
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