There is a social impact on parenting that is somewhat ironic. One of the things we become concerned with as parents as our children get older is interaction with other kids. We want them to develop socially for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, there’s a reverse social impact raising kids has on the parents. It’s easy to see why so many moms love wine clubs in some form. Some women call them book clubs, but let’s be real. A gathering with wine and wine tasting scorecards is a fun way to spend an evening.
If you have never joined a wine club or done wine tastings, it’s not the snooty, pretentious activity you may have in your head. I know when I did my first tasting I was a bit nervous about doing it wrong or sounding ignorant. It’s just wine! And wine amongst friends is the perfect way to have a mom’s night in.
Hosting a Wine Tasting Party
Winc Wine Club introduced me to my palate profile which is just a clever way of saying what wine I like. When you join the club they help you create a profile just like you would on Netflix and they send you wines you should enjoy. The cool thing is, the more you rate Winc Wine Club the better they get at sending you personalized choices, and the better you get at identifying your favorite wine features using my wine tasting scorecards. The social element of this is what I love best because it’s a lot of fun to get together with the girls or to have a family gathering and bond over a wine tasting. It’s also a perfect ice breaker in new social situations and it feels like a game as you drink wine and compare notes with each other.
Related: Enjoy Outdoor fun with a Backyard Scavenger Hunt {FREE Printable}
This summer is the perfect time to enjoy some outdoor fun with family, particularly on those balmy nights after the kids are in bed. When you host your wine tasting make sure you have plenty of printed cards for notes and scoring. Don’t forget to have a variety of wines to start with as well. The more diverse your wine selection is, the more you can learn about the tastes of your guests. It also makes note-taking and scoring more fun, because you can start with a broader spectrum and get a sense of the many different types of wine.
Wine Tasting Notes
Wine tasting is just observing and reporting. You look, smell, and taste then write it all down. That’s it. What’s fun about it is tasting (duh), but also the aspect of forming and sharing opinions about the wines you taste. Your notes will cover all kinds of attributes to the wine that you may never have thought of, but the biggest categories are appearance, aroma, and taste.
Appearance
After you pour the wine, you will take time to look it over. Get a sense of the shade of the wine as well as how thick it is and how clear. take everything in. My printout for wine tasting notes will tell you what to look for and gives you multiple-choice style options so it’s really easy to get used to and learn about wine as you go.
Aroma
The aroma part is where you smell the wine before tasting it. The notecard helps with this as well. You don’t have to wonder about what you are sniffing for. Just fill in the blank that fits best with what you are smelling from the glass. This is one of the most fun parts of the whole thing because you can challenge yourself to see what you can pick up on and you can compare notes with others.
Taste
When you taste the wine, there is a little story that starts with the sip and ends when you swallow. This section of the notecard lets you break down that story’s beginning, middle, and end and describe what’s going on in the story. This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of finding what you personally love about wine and which wines appeal to you the most.
Wine Tasting Scorecards
For your mom’s night in or back yard family gathering, I’ve included scorecards to print out along with your notes. This helps you label the wines you serve and score them according to personal taste. The wine tasting scorecards include categories to consider and some spaces for your own notes as you score each wine you try. You can even compare cards and choose a winning wine from the evening’s tasting.
