Whether you’re a confirmed wine lover or just beginning to enjoy wine, consider starting a tasting group with a bunch of friends. Each month, the group agrees upon a theme and each person brings a bottle of wine. It’s really fun if you put the bottles in paper bags and taste them “blind” because you won’t be influenced by knowing which one you are tasting. You’ll then concentrate on the similarities and differences between the wines, without bias, and, over time, it will help you figure out what styles of wine you like best.

You’ll learn whether you’re a fan of buttery/oaky or appley/crisp chardonnays, whether Russian River pinot noirs or red Burgundies (which are French pinot noirs) make you swoon, or if you can tell the difference between French Champagne and everything else sparkling. In fact, I think I’ve just suggested your first three themes!

Back in the 1980s, a group of women friends and I got together almost every month for seven years. We sat around a big, dining room table to taste wine from paper-bagged bottles and catch up on each other’s lives. Our professions ran the gamut. Several of us were involved in the food and wine industry; one sold toys, another was a photographer; and those who were not on the 9-5 treadmill usually hosted the event! Anyway, it was a blast and we even managed to learn something about wine.

For your own tasting party, try selecting a variety of wine regions so that a broad spectrum of wines will be brought to the tasting. Someone can take the lead each month, do a bit of research on the web and make suggestions to the group. And of course, this can all be easily accomplished with e-mail.

Chardonnay is a good wine to launch your group tasting. It’s been the best selling wine in the U.S. since overtaking White Zinfandel more than 10 years ago. For the tasting, you may want to include a French Chablis, another French white Burgundy (Chablis is a white Burgundy but a very different style from the majority of other white Burgs), and chardonnays from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile. Of course, include California; regional names like Carneros, Russian River Valley and Anderson Valley will be some of the most interesting choices. Remember, taste the wines blind, take some quick notes and relish the experience! If you’ve never compared this many wines at the same time, you’ll be wowed.

Life is full of details. So, here are a few to complete the above scenario.

• Have someone in the group volunteer to bring cheese and crackers, which you should try to refrain from eating until the “serious” tasting is over. Every wine tastes great with cheese. But that’s another column.
• Every person brings a separate glass for each of the wines to be sampled, as well as a water cup and a spit cup. Yes, you must spit. But don’t worry, you’ll swallow plenty. Be conservative as you move through the wines, critiquing and analyzing them. When the tasting is over, you’ll gravitate back to your favorites to enjoy with the cheese.
• In our group, we always ranked the wines individually, handing our lists to the host who quickly tallied them. Then we unveiled the wines one at a time, chatting about them along the way. There were always lots of oohs and aahs, surprises, and sometimes, satisfying confirmations.

Here’s to good friends and good wine, at the same table.