I am very new to wine, but still would like to have a wine tasting party to help learn and have fun, my question is where to start?

-What are some good less expensive wines to start with?

-Where to buy wine (my town is limited with Kroger wal-mart and liquor stores)

-What are good foods to serve with the wines

-How many diffrent wines at one time to try?

thanks for any input

I might get shot for some of these suggestions but I love to start someone I'm trying to get into wine with a shiraz tasting (def more fruit forward new world stuff).

Austrailians are a good place to start. I like having about 1/2-3/4 a bottle per person. So if you have 10 people expect to have about 5-6 bottles.

For a beginners tasting and see if you can find all the latest 2005 years,
I like having Yellow tail shiraz (3$?)
Little Penguin (10$?)
Woop woop (8$)
Marquis Philips Shiraz (18$)
Two hands Shiraz (30$)

That'll give you a great range from really cheap to some really good quality stuff that's readily available at most non serious liquor/wine stores.

Aussies are good IMO because they're so consistent and it's enjoyable with all that fruit.

Fruits and cheeses are always good finger foods for a tasting, Get some dry crackers and some sparkling water (and tap) to clean out the palate between tastes.

Usually after drinking so much, me and friends usualyl love to get some dinner based on the wine. I think lamb goes really well with shiraz so if you got a good kebab place next to you, or if you stop by the local market you can get a leg of lamb. Add some cumin, garlic, rosemary and cayenne rub on it and cook it at 400 for 3 hours. =) Get with a side of saffron rice w/ toasted pine nuts and some wild mushrooms.

Just as a side note, if you're planning to do a more formal tasting, you need alot of wine glasses. 10 people x 6 wines is 60 glasses =) ...I peronsally have 500$ worth of Schott Zwiesels (about 9$/glass)... thank god for the dish washer. If you want to skimp on glasses, make sure you have at least enuf good glasses for guests, rince out the previous wine with some water and use a small cup of the new wine to coat the new glasses.

Oh if you want to do it blind, goto walmart and buy some brown paper lunch bags, they work wonders on having blind tastings. make sure you label the bags!

Hope that helps,
Jeff

Yeah that does help thanks for the info.

Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill goes well with Filet o'Fish, while Grape MD 20/20 complements McRib nicely.

For a tasting party for firsttimers, I'd try some foody red wines (but not Aussie shiraz in the normal price range...).

Get some decent spanish, or portuguese wines and round up a platter of cheeses, sausauges, smoked ham and a nice loaf of rustic bread and you're perfectly set...

Have people do a tasting of no more than 3 or 4 of these wines and then let them delve freely into the cheeses and such. No doubt they'll be hungry from all the acid by now and with a couple of choices, you're bound to have some perfect match that they'll never forget.

quote:

I like having Yellow tail shiraz (3$?)
Little Penguin (10$?)
Woop woop (8$)
Marquis Philips Shiraz (18$)
Two hands Shiraz (30$)

I like where you're going with this. I might also recommend throwing in a nice crisp New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the middle somewhere in there. Especially if you're just tasting and not having a meal. The SB will wake your palate back up 'cause that's a WHOLE lot of fruity Shiraz.

(+/- $16 USD)
Monkey Bay
Allan Scott
Bird
Kim Crawford

I am especially a fan of the 2005 Allan Scott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc