The Art of Hosting a Wine Tasting for Professionals
Veronica Brundle - May 8 2025, 2:09:09 PM
The charm of a corporate wine tasting
If you are looking for a way to bring your team together or to win a new relationship, a wine tasting is a tried-and-true event that can help strengthen relationships and build team camaraderie. It provides the right balance between learning about wine, creating space for a meaningful conversation and bonding over a shared experience. Tasting wine is a perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening event with your team.
The benefits of wine tasting as a team-building event
A wine tasting as a team event isn’t just for wine-lovers or wine connoisseurs; it is an effective team-building and team-bonding activity. First, members of your team may not know the history of wine or have learned the art of winemaking and tasting. Second, with a little bit of wine in your system the conversation will flow more openly than it may otherwise, which will strengthen communication at the event and in the future. Lastly, having a shared experience will lead to a stronger relationship, which leads to more collaboration and improved morale.
How to plan a successful wine-tasting team-building event
To plan a successful wine tasting there are a few things you need to get right. The first is selecting the location or venue for the tasting. Logistics are important, so make sure it is easily accessible to your group. Next, make sure you choose the right wine event for your group. Is your group into a chic urban rooftop or more of a cozy vineyard type of setting? The venue will set the tone of the event and enhance the ambiance. Lastly, you need to select which wines you plan on tasting. Curation is key so consider an engaging mix of wines and perhaps even tie it to something meaningful to the group. For example, if you work for a French company, French wine may be a perfect choice. To enhance the event further, add a food pairing or blind tastings.
How do you get everyone to relax and connect?
To get members to mingle and start a conversation make sure that you have the right atmosphere and environment. Subtle background music, small group activities and conversation starters are all great ways to get the conversation going that translates back to the workplace. You can always get the conversation started yourself, or have a quick icebreaker prepared to get the group to engage. You will want to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute and learn about each other in a relaxed environment.
Spice it up with new elements to a traditional wine tasting
Don’t just settle for a wine tasting that could be considered boring. Spice it up and make it more fun and interesting? Introduce game elements like trivia, a scavenger hunt to find wine based items or your own variety of games. You could do ‘Guess the Grape’ or ‘Wine Geography Trivia’ to make the event interactive, educational and foster communication. Participants will be alert and engaged. Anything with teams will always bring out the competitive juices of your team.
Don’t let the event ending mean the discussion has to stop.
At the end of the event you can discuss what everyone enjoyed and even brainstorm on other event ideas for future events. Try to incorporate how this experience fostered team-building and ways to continue the discussions when wine isn’t present. Make a point to discuss follow-up activities or other ways to communicate about this shared interest like a slack channel, email or a newsletter.
You can’t go wrong with a wine-tasting team building experience.
Give your team a memorable experience that will enrich the team dynamics, learn about wine and create a positive environment. To take the next step, book your professional wine tasting event with Elevent at Bookelevent.com. Uncork a new chapter of camaraderie and elevate your team.
Originally published at May 8 2025, 2:09:09 PM. Updated on May 14 2025.
