Has anyone ever done a wine club??

[lindrusso]

I was wondering if any of you wine lovers have ever participated in a wine-tasting club. Not the wine-of-the-month clubs, but something like the CL supper clubs, only it revolves around wine. A friend and I are looking into starting one and would love some ideas and/or suggestions of where I could get some good ideas.

Thanks much for any help anyone can provide!

[Ralph]

We've recently joined one, which is an off-shoot of our subdivision's "Almost Gourmet Dining Group." The first tasting was just this past July.
Our discussions revolved on how to run these. Some suggestions included:

-Types of wines at tastings (country of origin, varietal, summer sipping, etc.)
-Price of bottles for tasting (we're staying less than $20)
-Who buys the bottles? Host or each guest? We're letting the host buy all the bottles, & divide the cost among the guests.
-Who provides glasses for tasting? Again, host or guest? We've opted for guest-provided; that way the host doesn't have to provide LOTS of glasses that might get broken.
-What food if any to serve? I think we're just doing snacky-type stuff &/or cheeses/breads/crackers.
-Format of the evening. Ours will let the host "arrange" the bottles in order how we'll taste. At our last (er, first) meeting, we went one bottle at a time, then shared our feedback with each other.

Of note, no one at the tasting was a SERIOUS oenophile, so we got common English reviews of the bottles rather than the frou-frou talk that often accompanies wine reviews. Not that there's anything wrong with those, though. We joined not only for the company, but also so that we might understand some of that frou-frou talk!
You might want to visit a few wine site for more info (try www.winebrats.org, (http://www.winebrats.org,) www.wine-lovers-page.com, (http://www.wine-lovers-page.com,) www.gangofpour.com, (http://www.gangofpour.com,) or maybe even www.winespectator.com). (http://www.winespectator.com).)
My frank advice: Get several people together; pick several bottles of one varietal (we had 5 bottles for 10 people) to make it simple; then just talk about how future get-togethers should transpire....
Cheers!