Many years ago my parents, Mr. & Mrs. Farmer, began hosting wine tastings at their home. They would invite their closest friends, neighbors and family every 6-8 weeks or so. We spent years tasting wines of different varieties, wines from different countries and even limoncello once. But, after years of invites, my parents tired of preparing the house, deciding on the wines and cleaning up afterwards so the torch was passed on to us.
This summer we decided to host the tastings with a little different twist. We offered a series of three tastings during the Summer that culminated in one last tasting in the month of December – simply called “Bubbly.” Anyone who attended one of the Summer tastings was invited to the Bubbly tasting of champagnes and sparkling wines.
Here are rough description of how we do wine tastings:
• Decide on a group of similar wines that you will be tasting, a date and a time.
• Invite friends, family and neighbors. They must like wine, too.
• About a week before, buy wines and chill if necessary.
• Prepare a custom wine tasting sheet. This is the sheet we used this year. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
• Cover the wine labels. We use black socks that are cut off at the bottom. It’s pretty genius actually and works very well. Number/Letter them accordingly.
• Everyone brings a dish to share and a donation of $10 per person to roughly cover cost of wine. (This money rarely covers the whole amount. Just sayin’.)
• Guests grab a scoring sheet and pen when they arrive and begin sipping and tasting wines and foods. It’s wonderful!
• Sipping and tasting lasts until the last person has sipped all the varieties.
• Scoring happens around a table with lots of laughs. It’s best to pick someone who knows how to add using a calculator but isn’t afraid to re-add several times to achieve the correct number.
• Scores are added up for each number/letter and a winner is chosen. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the favorite of everyone but it does give you a good idea of how cheap your friends are.
• At the end of the night a new variety is agreed upon for the next tasting.
And so it goes. My parents used this method for well over five years. They always had a different mix of people based on schedules and availability but it was always a hoot.
Feel free to use the scoring sheet (above) and alter it for yourself although you’ll need to have Adobe Illustrator to do it, I suppose. Otherwise you will just have to create your own in a program you are comfortable with, which could very well be on a sheet of paper and photocopied. Believe me, your guests won’t even care once they start sipping.
For every tasting I supply a cheeseboard but for the Bubbly tasting I decided to up the ante. I created this family of savory cheesecakes for the night. They were a big hit and the recipe was requested. So, here it is, friends.
Savory Cheesecake Trio
Heat oven to 350˚ and coat 6” cake pans with oil cutting parchment pieces to cover only the bottom of the pans. This will help you turn the cheesecakes out once they are cooled.
Cheesecake base
2 packages of cream cheese (commercial variety)
2 cups of plain yogurt (regular)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ tsp salt
Mix softened cream cheese with a mixer until smooth.
Add yogurt, eggs and salt.
Mix thoroughly.
Divide into three equal amounts. I used a scale but you can measure it out.
For Cheddar Herb Cheesecake
Add 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese and 2 Tbls. of fresh herbs {I used parsley, thyme and basil} to one bowl of cheesecake base and mix well.
For Goat Cheese Walnut Cheesecake
Add ½ cup crumbled goat cheese and ½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped fine to one bowl of cheesecake base and mix well
For Swiss Allium Cheesecake
Add 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese and 1 T. chopped garlic, 2 Tbls. sautéed shallots and 2Tbls. fresh scallions to one bowl of cheesecake base and mix well.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until center is set. Chill for several hours before removing from pans. Run a knife around the sides of the cheesecake, turn it upside down and allow the cheesecake to drop gently into your open hand. Garnish with reserved ingredients and serve with crackers. And wine. Must. Have. Wine.
Feel free to tailor the recipes to your tastes. I gave you the base recipe for the cheesecakes and you can add or delete as your tastes dictate. The only thing is they should have cheese in them. For instance, if you don’t like goat cheese, perhaps a sheep’s milk feta would be a good replacement. Just keep that in mind and you’re good to go.
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