Annapolis Wino Club's first-ever blind wine judging party

B and I are hosting our first party of the new year in a week and half (on the Sunday of MLK weekend - hooray for holiday Mondays!). It's a pretend attempt at being grown up (ha). It's going to be oh-so-classy (double ha).

Not so much. But, it is going to be a wine tasting/judging. We'll do one each month - that's why we've very officially formed the "Annapolis Wino Club" (see? keeping it classy already) - and we'll taste/judge a different variety of wines each time. The fun part is that it's a blind taste-test: everyone brings a bottle to be tasted and judged, we'll conceal it so no one knows whose is whose and what is what, and then we'll all score what we taste. The bringer of the best bottle (once the scores are tallied) will win a prize. I'm thinking something stellar like these:

Photo from SabbeSpot.

Again, classy, no?

For this first party - which is clearly going to be very trial-run-ish - we've chosen to simply go with red wines in general, but hopefully we'll do one variety each time starting with month two (perhaps Cab or Pinot Noir since it's winter and then maybe whites in the summer, etc.).

I have to wrap my head around snacks (cheese, duh, plus fruit and bread? any other suggestions...that are cheap and doable for someone who can't cook to save their life?), plus score cards (luckily B's sister, who has done this at her house is sending me some templates, thanks Kel!), tasting glasses, and giant tarps - to protect our light carpets from the red wine - kidding. B is also going to have to hold me back from "branding" everything; I've already considered making a custom logo for the AWC (Annapolis Wino Club) and adhering it to everything from the glasses to napkins, to a tablecloth to party favors. But I won't. Because the whole point of this party is that it's recession-friendly (everyone brings a bottle so the host doesn't bear the whole burden) and we all know how out of hand my crafting gets....

Regardless, I'm excited for it. It should be a fun time and a good way to get friends together during the winter months when we all just want to hibernate at home.

Have any of you done this before? Any pointers on score cards, procedure, etc? Thoughts on accompanying snacks or the winning bottle's prize? Do tell!

(And I promise to post photos of the event once it happens mid-month!)