Away from the course: fun with wine

Ok, so you like golf and you like wine.  And you have friends that like wine.  Maybe you are a golfer, or generally like to gamble.  Well here's a seriously fun event that brings all of that together.  Call it "Wine Wars" or even "Wine Survivor."

Even if you are on your favorite bucket list golf trip, man does not live by golf alone.  Playing a little game of Wine Wars at dinner can be a welcome diversion.  Heck, it might even become one of the favorite parts of your golf tip.

The object is simple.  Find a wine that your group will appreciate.

But be warned, this isn't for the faint of heart or the" light-walleted."

First, create a group of friends who appreciate wine and enjoy wine tasting.  Next, find a friendly restaurant, preferably with a sommelier.  Each participant will drop off their bottle of wine to the restaurant the day before (or days before) your designated evening of the Wine War.

Now, it pays to have a great sommelier available.  Ideally, he would decant the wines a couple of hourse before hand.  But regardless, you need to have a little help at the restaurant to make it work.  Also, a private room is a must.

On Wine War day, everyone arrives, meets at the bar for a cocktail, then heads to their private dining room.  At the dining room, unlabeled glasses of wine have been labeled 1-8 (assuming 8 participants), and each participant will taste and rank the wines.  Only the sommelier or restaurant host knows the identity of each wine.  Points are awarded for the rank, in other words, the #1 wine on a list will get 8 points, but the last/8th ranked wine would be ranked 8th.  Have the restaurant serve some bland cheeses or breads for the tasting ceremony.

With the tasting and ranking completed, have a great dinner!  Enjoy this dinner to the fullest, as it is a special event.

Upon completion of the dinner, the ranking of the wines will be revealed for everyone.  The winner will get some sort of interesting trophy that you have procured (perhaps a golden goblet or the like).

But the person who brought the lowest ranking wine.....that person gets the tab.  OUCH!

If it seems like too big of a burden, you can have a shared tab, where the 2 or 3 lowest ranking wines pick up the tab.  But you get the idea.  Let us know at http://www.bucketlistgolftour.com if you try it and if you have any fun stories to share.