Sick of doing the same thing on Friday and Saturday nights? Want to get out of the same old routine of going to clubs and bars? Why not hold your own wine-tasting evening? It is a perfect way to have a laugh with friends and also get to know a few different wines.

There are several different ways of holding a wine tasting:

The first way is to pick a type of wine that everybody likes, for instance Sauvignon Blanc. The next step is to give each person a different type of Sauvignon Blanc to bring. Depending on your budget, you could ask people to buy from a certain country, a certain price range, or just from a certain retailer. As the host, you need to provide nibbles and a score sheet for everyone to mark the wines on. You also need a roll of foil and some labels numbered one to however many guests are bringing wine. As guests arrive, take the wine they brought you and wrap the bottle in foil. When everyone has arrived, uncork the bottles and then stick the numbers at random on all the wine bottles, you might want to leave the last to arrive some time to chill and hence give it a bigger number. You and your guests then get to taste all the wines, make notes on the ones that they think are the best and choose their favourite wine. When everyone has tried the wine, unwrap the bottles. You will be surprised which one you picked, which one was not worth the extra price, and which one the party as a whole liked the most.

An alternative wine tasting would be of a more fundamental nature. Everyone brings a bottle of wine (it might be better to stick to either red or white if there are going to be a lot of different wines – mixing the two can have disasterous consequences), and then the fun begins. If you give everyone a piece of paper, they can write down what they like about each wine, and then by the end of the evening they will have a favourite, or just be merrily drunk. Either way, this means that you will have held an excellent party.

Wine is a fun drink, so why not have some fun with it and learn which ones are your favourite at the same time. For more information on wines, why not go to an online wine retailer? There is information on different types of wine, what they work well with, and great deals to take advantage of.