As one moves on from Undergraduate to Young Business Professional, or YBP as we say at Harvard, it is important to hold on to social conventions once so prevalent in the college arena, and while 10:30am red-eye liquor parties or red wine-white t-shirt bashes are no longer acceptable to the population that inhabit the ‘real world’ there are pleasant, intellectually superior substitutions. For example The Snobbish Wine Tasting (important to replace ‘tasting’ for ‘rager’–respectability issue)– a great way to meet neighbors, colleagues, and most importantly women, in an informal social atmosphere. In this environment you are able to gracefully execute whatever lessons you have retained from 4 years of incessant drinking and socializing. Here are a few tips for hosting your own wine tasting:

1.) Initially buy a wide assortment of varietals: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz (not Yellow Tail), Chianti, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. A wide array allows for people to differentiate between varietals. Or concentrate on one red or white wines or even several wines within a specific varietal.

2.) Buy munchies-Cheese, Crackers, Sausage

3.) Invite Guests, equal gender numbers are good

4.) Chill Whites open Reds to breath

5.) Arrange wines as mentioned above

White Wine: Riesling is the sweetest white wine, notice lightness and acidity as well as citrus or apple taste. Sauvignon Blanc is abrasive and earthy. Pinot Grigio is often a simple, light, crisp wine. Chardonnay has big flavors-vanilla and butter to mention a few, a lush full-bodied wine.

Red Wine: Pinot Noir is the most flavorful, overarching red wine with silky textures and erotically earthy aromas. Shiraz is rustic, manly, and yet elegant-in Australia it is Syrah but Australians know it as Shiraz. Chianti is an Italian red mix with plum and cherry flavors with a touch of salt and spice. Merlot has flavor and aromas that include blackberry, cassis, baked cherries, chocolate, and sometime leather. Cabernet is known for its quality, structure, and maturity; blackberry, eucalyptus, cedarwood, leather and plum often abound within Cabernet.

When your guests arrive be as cordial as possible this is a time for you to gain greater insight into the people you are interacting with everyday, network and in the most rare of instances meet the future misses.

6.) Begin Tasting

a. Important Note: experience has shown small sampling pours allow each individual to sample the whole breadth while remaining somewhat sober.

Give everyone enough time to really taste the wine, let them ponder the tastes in the juice and its texture, as this will help them on their journey to Wine Nirvana. Tastings are good for getting a little buzz afterwards if one wishes to continue down the holy path of inebriation call a cab and head to the nearest up scale watering hole, preferably one that serves wine so that if one wished, he or she could continue to drink wine while remaining respectably buzzed at the same time allowing those friends who haven’t quite got the self control thing down yet to let loose.

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