Fall Cocktail Party Idea with the Taste of Dried Leaves

What does it mean when someone tells you that the wine they are sniffing has the aromatics of dried leaves? Or organic earth? Or tobacco? You might take a whiff of the same wine and have a different opinion of what it smells like.

Well, here’s a fun activity that can easily parlay into a reason to throw a get together with a little bit of wine:

Invite a group of friends together for a wine tasting. These don’t need to be wine saavy friends but I can tell you this is fun for wine geeks and non-geeks alike. For this activity you’ll need the following:

-2 glasses for each person who is coming to the party

-At least 4 different wines poured into decanters so that nobody knows what each wine is – number the decanters with a dry erase marker. (wine 1, wine 2 and wine 3 and wine 4). I’d suggest that you choose a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, an American Chardonnay a California Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sonoma Pinot Noir.

· 25 small containers (Tupperware sandwich containers work well). Each container should hold the following items:
1. Sliced Green Apples
2. Sliced Yellow Apples
3. Orange Slices
4. Lemon Slices
5. Lime slices
6. Grapefruit slices
7. Dried Apricot pieces
8. Dried cranberries
9. Raspberries
10. Blackberries
11. Currant Jelly or Jam
12. Pineapple chunks
13. Mango spears
14. Peaches (can be from the frozen section but thawed out)
15. Potting soil (or dirt from your lawn or garden)
16. A broken up cigar
17. Dried Leaves
18. Toffee pieces
19. Coffee Beans
20. Dark Chocolate Chips
21. Black peppercorns
22. Chopped green bell peppers
23. Various flower petals (one stem of a few different flowers)
24. Green Herbs (Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary)
25. Grass Clippings

· Here’s what you do:
-On your kitchen table lay out all of the containers and one empty glass per person

-When your guests all arrive, hand them the other empty glass and have them pour a glass of wine from one of the numbered decanters.

-They should feel welcome to sip the wine and more importantly smell the wine. You should have enough wine in the decanter that they can come back for another small pour (or big pour - after all, this should be fun!)

-Once they have their glass of wine they should head to the kitchen table where the containers and the other empty glasses are stationed.

-Here’s where the fun really starts – they need to pick up an empty glass and place items from the containers into that empty glass to create a mixture of real, tangible, visible ingredients that matches the smell of their actual wine as closely as possible.

-This is actually fun - your guests should be encouraged to put items in the glass and if they feel they’ve missed the mark, take them back out or dump it out completely and start over. Remember that everyone smells things differently and there are no wrong answers or combinations.

-Once everyone feels confident they have a glass with ingredients in it that matches the smell of their glass of wine, you should unveil the wines.

-What each guest will now have is a set of tasting notes that they have created for their wine. Those with Pinot Noir will be able to look in their ingredients glass and say, “well, I think Pinot Noir smells like (whatever they put in their glass)”

-This is one way to help hone your wine tasting abilities but also to check what you actually think a certain variety smells like – it’s often surprising and less complicated than the wine critics would have you believe!

Andy Chabot, Food and Beverage Director