The following post was written by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. I hope you enjoy his ideas as much as I did.

As a realtor, one of the more entertaining ways I like to reward my current clients and obtain new ones is by hosting wine tastings. I typically host one wine party a month and try to keep the themes fresh and the cost down. I have found that there are several ways to do this.

wine tastingOne of the more obvious ways to be cost effective is to limit your wines to specific regions of the world. While a French Bordeaux party would set you back a large chunk of change, wines from Australia, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand have so many affordable and delicious offerings. Last month, I had a Reds Down Under party and managed to spend around $10 a bottle for some very tasty shiraz and cabs. Likewise a summertime party featuring Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand can be done quite affordably.

Another month, I contacted the local distributor for a well known wine label. She offered to come to my wine tasting and provide the wine free of charge if I had enough people to make it worth her while. I was able to provide wine to twenty people at no cost to myself and she was given an opportunity to promote her wine.

Although I have never hosted a pot luck wine tasting, I have attended several. The last event was interesting in that the host asked guests to bring a wine that they had obtained from a winery they actually visited. It could be a wine that you actually purchased at the winery or a wine with a label from a winery that you had visited at some time in your life. We were then asked to share the wine and describe the winery and provide any information that we had about the specific winery. It was really interesting and provided entertainment along with tasty wine.

Of course, local wine shops offer great recommendations and have preset wine tasting menus that you can draw from. But, its much more fun to be creative and manipulate the great wine offerings from around the world to suit your interests and budget.

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