Do’s and Don’ts from an Inspirational Speaker
As a speaker and author of The Wine Bible, one of the best selling books on wine, I give bespoke, exclusive wine tastings around the world. I’ve worked hard to ensure lively corporate events with a professional wine speaker are a success for every team. My audiences have ranged from five people to 500. But no matter the size of the group, there are ways to ensure success when you incorporate an entertaining wine tasting into your event. Here’s what I’ve learned over my three-decade career as a professional wine speaker and presenter.
- A wine event may seem like it’s about wine. But it isn’t. It’s about entertainment. Wine is just the vehicle that brings people together in a fun and exciting way. A knowledgeable wine expert is people-oriented first.
- A lively wine event is the perfect antidote to a business meeting or conference. After a day of business, a unique wine tasting or a wine dinner is more engaging and personal than an open bar reception.
- Who you choose as a speaker is critical. A top wine expert must also be an engaging, motivational speaker. That person should be able to galvanize the audience, so that the group is having a great time and learning at the same time. A good wine speaker presents in a way that’s entertaining and educational for both the least wine-knowledgeable person in the audience as well as the most wine-knowledgeable person. No one should feel left out.
- Details matter, starting with the room itself. I’ve seen wine tastings fall flat because the janitor decided to shampoo the rug before the tasting (every wine smelled like rug shampoo), or the chef next door was frying sausages (every wine smelled like sausages), or the wine ran out early because the servers poured too much for half the group, leaving the other half with nothing to drink. A good wine speaker will take care of all of the details so the event manager doesn’t have to. If the wine speaker you’ve hired just wants to show up, leaving all the advance details to you, you’ve got the wrong speaker.
- Specify the glasses to be used at the event and actually smell a random few of them before the event. If the event is in a hotel or private room of a restaurant, chances are the glasses went through the dishwasher with plates covered with everything from salmon to salad dressing. Wine glasses can trap smells and make the wines taste awful. Ask the venue to run the glasses through a separate hot water rinse before the event.
- Make sure every participant has a small individual spit cup. (This can be as simple as a plain white paper coffee cup). Big, heavy-to-lift spit buckets are both ugly and unwieldy.
- Ditto for water. Everyone should have their own individual bottle of water. Large hotel or restaurant water pitchers are heavy to lift and awkward to pour.
- Create a placemat with numbered circles on it, so that each glass has a number. This is not only helpful for every attendee, it also helps insure that the servers pour the right wine into the right glass. I always put the host’s logo and my company’s logo on the placemat.
- While it might seem like having food during a wine tasting is a good idea, it usually isn’t. A plate of cheeses or charcuterie will turn the wine tasting into disorganized mess with some people eating while others try the wines. I find it’s much better to have just crackers or bread during the wine tasting, then right after the tasting, serve passed appetizers.
- Don’t choose wines for the tasting from a banquet wine list. Banquet wines lists usually have inexpensive, basic quality wines that the venue marks up four times or more. Instead, a good speaker will help you choose higher quality, more delicious wines from the venue’s regular wine list or even, as I often do, arrange to have certain wines brought in specifically for the event. The venue will usually charge you corkage for wines you bring in. But the retail cost of a wine plus corkage is still usually less than a venue’s mark-up, and the wines your guests taste will be much higher in quality. It’s the smart way to go.
Karen MacNeil is the author of the bestselling book The Wine Bible. She gives exclusive wine tastings for companies and corporate events throughout the United States and around the world. You can reach her at karen@karenmacneil.com
