Wine Tasting At Home: A Virtual Wine Tasting And Trivia Night With Wine Militia

It doesn’t get much more convenient than doing a wine tasting at home. There is no driving required. No fancy clothes necessary. Hey, you probably don’t even need to shower (though it is advised!). This past summer, Kevin and I welcomed twin babies into our lives. And okay, we’ll admit it… Maybe we have missed a shower or two? So naturally, we’ve been ALL about doing virtual activities from home.

We’ve tried just about every virtual event imaginable — from virtual cheese plating to succulent planting to sangria making with Portuguese drag queens (yes, it really does exist!).

Quarantine life doesn’t have to be dull. And we think this latest event tops them all — a virtual wine game called Wine Wars with The Wine Militia. But what makes this virtual event so unique? And what can you expect? We’ll take you inside our latest adventure — the perfect activity for the adults in your family no matter how far away you live from each other.

Wine and Trivia: A Wine Tasting At Home Like No Other

The Wine Militia was founded in 2008 by Canadian touring rock musician Lamar Engel. The rocker turned sommelier has quite the unique background in the wine industry — honing his skills over the past 20+ years at small tasting rooms throughout Napa Valley as well as working in restaurants in San Francisco. His goal: taking pretension out of wine.

The Wine Militia is doing wine tasting on a whole new level. Whether its wine blending games, blind tastings or cheese and wine pairings, there is no shortage of fun (and tasty) options. In fact, I had a difficult time choosing. If Kevin was picking, we probably would have ended up with a cheese tasting. However, I ended up selecting their Wine Wars experience since I like a little friendly competition (mixed with some wine of course).

What is Wine Wars? And How Does it Work?

What originally started as a fun way for Lamar to train his team, quickly turned into the company’s most popular activity. Wine Wars is a wine trivia activity that is completely customizable, based off your group’s wine preferences.

Have a white wine fan in the house? Don’t like overly acidic wine? No problem. The Wine Militia will source the types of wine you enjoy most or something similar to it. To fully maximize your experience, we recommend gathering a group of friends or family to play together.

Since COVID hit, we don’t get to see my family as often as we’d like. So I invited my dad as well as my sister and brother-in-law to join in the fun.

The wine package arrived about a a week ahead of the tasting — neatly packed up with everything you’ll need including scoring sheets, a color chart to measure the age of the wine and aromatics and flavor cards to help you guess. Also, this is a blind tasting game. Each of the wines come in burlap bags and are numbered. So no peeking inside!

There are several wine packages you can select, ranging from 2-4 bottles. I went with the happy medium option — selecting the Wine Trooper Package ($105), which included 3 full bottles of wine (1 white and 2 red). After a brief intro, we shared our first wine tasting experience. Let’s just say, my palate has greatly expanded since my early 20’s. I admitted my first wine (that I remember) was Franzia rose served out of a cardboard box (don’t judge, you know you like it). While my sister’s first wine was Mad Dog (known for its low cost and high alcohol) and my Dad drank Thunderbird. A classy bunch!

But Lamar took all of our true (and awful) wine confessions with great humor. He had prepared a selection of much higher quality wines to sample. He explained the game — we’d compete in 3 rounds. First, we’d taste the wine, then guess the wine and finally compete in a game of trivia. Bring it on!

Wine Tasting at Home: Speed Rounds

Wine tasting doesn’t need to be a daunting experience. Lamar explained we’d be approaching it with deductive tasting, something like if you’ve ever played a game of Clue. Is it fresh or dry? Oak or no oak? Each of the aromas or flavors can help you narrow down the wine by following along on the blind tasting card conveniently included in the tasting package.

Kevin and I played on one team. Though we were grateful to have a mute button as we debated over our guess on the first white wine. He thought it was a Chardonnay but eventually caved (reluctantly). And we went with my guess — the Albariño from Spain. Score one for team Phil and Kevin!

Besides learning how to taste the flavor notes of an Albariño wine, Lamar also showed us photos of how its grown in Spain and how the land and surrounding environment contributes to its salinity and fresh fruit flavor, similar to a Sauvignon Blanc.

We were up this round, but still needed to answer the trivia questions correctly. This is where my sister and brother-in-law caught up with us — not only because they guessed more correct answers. But they were the first to call us out on rule infractions — ringing in early before the entire trivia question was read. We think they’ve been watching too much Jeopardy! But fine, rules are rules.

We made it to the last and final round — with all 3 teams neck-in-neck. It could be anyone’s game. In a regular tasting, I’m typically just drinking the wine and don’t think much about the profile of the wine. I’m the first to admit, that by the last tasting, I’m pretty much down for anything you give me.

However, Lamar broke down the tasting in a way that made us think of what we’re drinking. What flavors stand out and why? And showed us that wine tasting doesn’t need to be so daunting. As I tried that final wine, I could taste the blackberry and cherry notes — guessing Cabernet Sauvignon for the win.

In fact, we all guessed the last wine correctly. Clearly, we’ve come a long way from our Franzia wine drinking days.

Our prize? A special wine from Lamar’s own personal wine cellar. If it’s half as good as any of the wines we sampled in our virtual tasting, we’ll be very happy. Kevin and I are already thinking about our next virtual experience. And yes, we might even shower for it (but no guarantees). Hey, it’s a tough dad life!

THE LOW DOWN:

• The Wine Militia is a company of funky sommeliers that plan and perform creative fun wine experiences for all crowds.
• Wine Wars, which we highly recommend has several tasting options from 2-4 bottles (prices ranging from $75-$125)
• Each kit easily serves 2 individuals and includes a private Zoom Meeting ID, 60 minute wine game session with a Sommelier, a winemaker packet including wine game playing cards, color chart, aroma & flavor cards as well as the wine.
• To book your virtual experience, go directly on The Wine Militia’s website where you can find information on Wine Wars as well as all of their other virtual wine tasting experiences.

Looking for other fun activities to do while you’re still stuck at home? Check out our other recent top picks including a cheese tasting class from New York’s famed Murray’s Cheese Shop. And if you’re still looking for ideas, check out all of our quarantine ideas here, including some of the best hidden staircase climbs and hikes in LA.