How to Serve a Wine Flight

A wine flight consists of a smaller than average “pour” of several wines for the purpose of tasting and comparison. This is a great way to taste/serve a variety of wines for a party while saving money and preventing guests from becoming overly intoxicated. A flight can be designed to highlight a particular region, varietal, winery, vintage or frankly anything else a creative planner might want to compare. Examples would be a “A world wide tour of Shiraz/Syrah”, “The Best of Texas”, “California Pinot’s”, “The French Connection” etc. etc. You can sample the same variety from different regions or wineries in order to compare regional attributes. You may want to sample different vintages (or years) of the same varietal from the same winery. This is a great way to do a vertical or horizontal tasting.
While there are smaller sized “flight” glasses available, it is not necessary to purchase new glassware for your party. You can get away with smaller pours in standard sized glasses. A standard size for a flight pour is 2-3 oz, or ¼ to 1/3 of a cup. The more wines you are serving, the smaller the pour.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Enough wine glasses to serve the flights of wine to your guests
• several bottles of wine following your chosen theme
• food/ meal or hors d'oeuvres
• writing pads and pens

1. Choose a theme for your flight and buy the necessary wines accordingly. Plan for each bottle to pour between 8 and 10 serving depending on the size of the pour. The number of wines in the flights varies, generally between 5 and 8 is pretty standard. There are however no rules, just adjust the size of the pour accordingly. If you are unsure how to choose your wines, ask your wine merchant to help you out. A knowledgeable wine store owner/employee should be able to advise you.

2. Be sure to provide some light food if you are not serving a meal. While one option for flights is to serve them along with a meal, matching each leg of the flight to the course being served, serving them with appetizers, tapas, or just a standard cheese, bread and fruit tray is more common. Just be sure your guests have a way to both cleanse their pallets and keep a little something in their stomachs.

3. Provide each participant with a small notepad and pencil in order to take notes on the flight. If serving with a meal or appetizers designed specifically for each leg, encourage them to make notes on how the wine and food paired or complemented each other. Encourage guests who keep a wine journal to bring theirs with them. Save the end of the evening for serving coffee and taking some time to compare notes.

Tips & Warnings

• Have several guests bring a bottle of wine, giving them instructions as to the theme. This can result in a really fun mix for your flight.
• If you would like to serve more different wines than you have people to consume full bottles of, be prepared to store the left overs. You can even prepare in advance to have enough wine to send some left over wine home with your guests. (see my article on How to Keep Opened Wine Fresh)
• If your state has an opened container law, be sure guests transport left over wine home outside the "passenger compartment" of their vehicles.

Resources

• How to Keep Opened Wine Fresh

[sonni57]

on 12/19/2009 I've never heard of a wine flight until now.

[sullysee]

on 11/18/2009 Love this unique idea for a wine party with friends. Bringing their wine journals, mixing 5 to 8 types of wine with a theme. Very clever and fun. 5*

[poe9368]

on 11/18/2009 Good information. Very helpful to those planning a wine tasting. 5*

[poe9368]

on 11/18/2009 Good information. Very helpful to those planning a wine tasting. 5*

[ampersand]

on 11/2/2009 Great information on serving a wine flight!