Guidelines and Suggestions for Tasting Presenters

Triangle Chapter, AWS

The following suggestions are offered as guidelines for people who lead presentations for us at wine tastings of the Triangle chapter. Updated January 2023.

We appreciate your offer to present wines very much! Some of you will be professionals in the wine industry, while many of you will simply be wine lovers leading us in a discussion of some favorite wines or regions. In either case, we want to offer you some guidance to help make your presentation well received -- and to provide a backup plan in case you have an emergency situation which prevents you from coming.

You may wish to use our Wine Tasting Cost Spreadsheet to make sure you stay within budget for the tasting.

We would appreciate your taking the following steps to make your presentation successful:

Buy your wines at least a week in advance. They need to be "on hand" and available to us in case you can't present. We usually know the final tasting count the second Friday before the tasting.
Make up some tasting notes (either for yourself or as handouts) -- again to provide backup in case you can't present.
Give strong consideration to some kind of handout naming the wines and telling us something about them.
Your opening presentation should not exceed 15 minutes max! Additional information can be presented as wines are poured.
It is advisable not to put the price of each wine in the handouts, so as not to influence ratings; however, be prepared to tell attendees the price after each wine is tasted. Rounding the nearest dollar is appreciated.
If you are willing to do so, you can add your wine names to preprinted sheets to handout to attendees, based on our customizable wine evaluation chart; otherwise we will use blank evaluation sheets

Reimbursement

Wherever possible please supply original receipts.
If your receipts include other purchases, please summarize your wine purchases separately.
It would be helpful, if you use the following form: Tasting Reimbursement Request.
Submit your receipts for reimbursement to the treasurer, preferably AT the tasting.
You will be reimbursed at the event or soon after..
In exceptional cases where you personally will not be at the meeting or the monies need paying in advance, please discuss further with the Treasurer BEFORE the tasting.

Please note: If you intend to charge us a fee, you must let us know how much up front.

If you have any questions about these guidelines, please contact a board member. Thank you!