Prepping Your Wine Tasting Party: Pairing Wine with Priming Ingredients

The "Wine & Priming Ingredient Match-Up" is a list of some excellent priming ingredients to be paired with popular varietals.

Some ingredients will serve as primers for a couple of wines, such as apples, which can be used for many white wines, or blackberries, suitable for many red wines. Although I've only chosen six types of wine, the primer ingredients listed should work with similar varietals.

Wine & Priming Ingredient Match-Up

• Chardonnay: butter, vanilla, apple, pear, charred oak, toasted almonds, caramel, peaches
• Sauvignon Blanc: pineapple, apple, fresh grass or wheat grass, nectarines, melon, orange slices, apricot jam, jasmine blossoms 
• Pinot Grigio/Gris: lemon peel, white pepper, honey, straw, peaches, grapefruit, rose petals
• Cabernet Sauvignon: black peppercorns, blackberries, dark chocolate, currant jam, black licorice, cloves, cinnamon
• Merlot: blackberries, plum jam, cherries, boysenberry jam, milk chocolate, espresso beans, fresh mint
• Syrah/Shiraz: blackberries, violets, strawberry jam, cedar chips, mushrooms, tea leaves 

Wine Tasting Notes

Tasting notes will help you determine the priming ingredients you're going to set out at the party.

Tasting notes can usually be found on the winemaker's website, or search for the particular bottle at an online store like Wine.com.

Make sure that you'll have a few bottles of both red and white wine for a nice variety. After the tasting, invite guests to pick up their favorite bottles of wine and join you at the dinner table, while conversations of toasted oak and rich, fruit tones continue throughout the evening.