Wine tastings are fabulous for a number of different events; ranging from team building and training seminars to post-conference activities. They allow everyone to participate in a very hands-on, personal way and encourage their feedback and opinions regarding the wines that they sample. Within a corporate environment, this is a useful tool to encourage individuals to express themselves within an atmosphere different to that of ‘the office’.
Whether you are hosting your own independent wine tasting or visiting an official wine farm, here are a few activities and approaches to this rather tasteful endeavour:
Talk Time
Invite a motivational speaker or stand-up comedian to present the wines to your team. This has the dual purpose of motivating and / or entertaining your crew, while also encouraging them to relax and enjoy the wine tasting.
Blind Wine Tasting
Blindfold your team and have them taste a variety of wines and try to identify them. Of course, they will need to know a little about wine first, so precede this by a quick explanation of the flavours and what to expect. Create teams of four or five people if you have a large group and award the winner of each team with a good bottle of wine. This encourages communication within the group.
Wine Blending
After a brief explanation of wines and the blending thereof, divide your group into teams and give each team a number of single variety wines. Then, allow them to come up with a delicious blend. The best tasting blend (judged by a wine expert, preferably) means the winning group. This creates a fabulous environment for team work and mutual support.
Use Your Nose
A major part of assessing a wine is its bouquet – the fragrance it releases. Get an expert in to teach your team how to smell a wine effectively and how to define what they can smell (grass, vanilla, ground coffee, and so on). This means that the participants have to learn about the raw ingredients that go into the wine and then use their knowledge to assess the sample at hand.
Around the World
The flavours and intensities of wines around the world differ significantly. Break borders by allowing the team to sample wines from Spain, Cuba, Russia, Australia and China. This is fun and will be a great treat to any staff members that hail from one of these countries. Try to choose really different types of wine to make this experience even more varied and exciting.
The Real Deal
Touring the vineyards and exploring the rows of wooded barrels is always a real treat, whether or not you are familiar with the winemaking process. Enjoy fresh air and sunshine as your learn about the entire process, from growing the vines and picking the grapes to sourcing the bottles and labels.
Wine Etiquette
Get wine savvy as you invite a speaker to inform you of the protocol around wines. This will include ordering and tasting the wine in the restaurant, attending formal wine tastings (and all the rules around the spit bucket!), pouring wines and serving them to guests. Consider your target audience before settling on this option as covering the etiquette presumes that they already know a fair bit about wine.
Photo Credit: Andrics
