two glass of clear wine vintage

How to Host a Wine-Themed Holiday Party

It is almost the end of the year, and everybody is getting ready to celebrate the holidays. Now is the time to start planning your holiday party, and why not do something different and host a wine-themed party?

Here are some of the best wine-themed party ideas for your seasonal celebration, including some helpful wine-tasting party themes and festive wine-tasting ideas.

What Is a Wine Party?

A wine party is exactly as the name implies. It is a party where the guests drink wine and snack on delicious appetizers. If you and your friends and family enjoy drinking wine and trying out new flavors, a wine party is an excellent way to spend time with your loved ones during the holiday season.

How to Host a Wine Party

Person pouring wine on glass

Hosting a wine party is possibly one of the easiest parties to host. All you need is a few bottles of wine and some tasty nibbles. When hosting a wine party, you need to pick a theme, choose your wine, and prepare the appetizers.

How to Set Up the Party

Try decorating your party depending on the theme you have chosen. If you have chosen a wine-tasting theme, you can decorate with bunches of grapes, grape vines instead of garland, and maybe some candles. Christmas-themed wine parties are easy. Just throw in some tinsel and sparkly lights.

If you have chosen a single type of wine for the party, why not decorate using variations of that color? For example, a red tablecloth, red napkins, and red flowers for a red wine-themed party.

For the wine-tasting part of the party, create labels for specific wines, set up a table with fresh wine glasses, and include slips of paper and pens for guests to write their notes.

Don’t forget the appetizers, as you don’t want your guests to be too tipsy to savor the different wines!

How to Choose the Wine

The type of wine you should choose depends on the theme of your party. Some wine-tasting party themes have guests bring their own wine, while others choose to provide the wine, or a combination of both. If you have a Christmas wine-themed party, you could serve mulled wine or Pinot Noir.

New Year’s parties are a great time to break out fizzy and light drinks like Champagne or Prosecco. Rosé is also a good alternative if you’re not a big white wine drinker.

How to Choose the Appetizers

The great thing about wine is that it pairs so well with cheese and crackers. For appetizers, you can make a board of cheese, crackers, nuts, and different fruit to complement the different wines.

For example, red wines like Merlot pair with parmesan cheese, chestnuts, and plums. Pinot Noir pairs beautifully with brie and dried fruit. White wines are lighter and can be paired with pepper jack cheese and apples.

Different Wine Themes to Choose From

Having a themed wine party is a good way to get your guests to engage with each other and partake in the activities. A wine-tasting party is an excellent idea, and some wine-tasting party themes include: Single Variety, One Color, Pick Your Favorite, Bring Your Favorite, Bring a New Wine You’ve Never Tried, and Guess the Price.

Single Variety

Single-variety wines are typically made from one grape and are not blended. This means that the grape used in the wine will dominate the flavor of the wine.

This theme can be used for any wine party held throughout the year and is very easy to host.

One Color

Have each guest bring a wine belonging to one color only, either red or white. Red and white wines both work perfectly as a Christmas wine theme—for example, the red-wine theme we mentioned earlier, or a snowy Christmas theme for white wine.

Pick Your Favorite

Fun wine-tasting party ideas include having your guests try out all the wines available and have everyone pick their favorite one. This is a great conversation starter as it gets guests mingling by talking about the wines.

Bring Your Favorite Wine

Have your guests bring their favorite wine. This wine party theme is excellent during the holiday season as this gives your guests the opportunity to try new wines, and they can get ideas on what wines to gift friends and family for the holidays.

Bring a Wine You Have Never Tried Before

It’s good to try different wines as it grows your wine palate. This theme is perfect for a New Year’s party. As the year comes to a close, why not try some something new before the start of a new year?

You might find you enjoy a wine you never thought you would!

Guess the Price

This is a fun and engaging theme that will have all your guests drinking and guessing the price. Kick it up a notch by having prizes for the winning guesses. What’s the prize, you ask? Wine, of course!

Hosting Your Wine Party Is Made Easier with Wine Racks America

custom wine cellar

Easily host wine parties all year round instead of just during the holidays by building up and organizing your wine collection at home. With Wine Racks America, you can have a custom cellar designed for your home with some showpieces like glass-walled cellars or curved corner racks.

Upgrade your current wine storage unit at home with a metal or wood wine rack, or you could gift your loved ones with a wine rack kit this holiday season.

Contact Wine Racks America today at 888-373-6057 and let our team of wine cellar experts bring your vision to life!