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Harvest Party Entertaining Tips

Make it Authentic:

• For centuries, vineyards and wineries have opened their gates to share the "blessing of winegrapes" with wine novices, connoisseurs, family and friends. Use this age-old tradition to kick off your own wine and food pairing celebration.

• Grape stomping, immortalized by Hollywood in a 1956 “I Love Lucy” episode, dates back hundreds of years. Invite guests to take off their shoes, roll up their pants and stage an “I Love Lucy” look-alike contest.

• Invite guests to create and model their own interpretation of classic harvest couture from a favorite vintage (year).
  
  Celebrate Good Food, Good Wine - Great Variety

• Celebrate the wide variety of wines produced in California by assigning each of your friends a wine region and asking them to bring some wine from there.

• To showcase the breadth and diversity of California wine, place a card with the name of the grape variety, pronunciation and region it is grown from beside it.

• Then ask each friend to bring along a dish that pairs well with the wine they brought. "We really love potlucks," says Bruce Fry, a 5th-generation grower whose family throws a huge annual harvest party. "The more variety of food we have, the more variety of wine we can serve!"
  
  Dress it up!

• Make sure you have enough glasses. Provide at least two wine glasses per person, one for white and the other for red.

• Autumn is still a great time to take advantage of the outdoors. Move your party outside in your own backyard or to a local park and enjoy the company of your friends and family as well as the beautiful autumn weather. The open space will also enable the guest list to linger longer.

• Find a rustic picnic table reminiscent of wine country and place a large dark-hued and colorful tablecloth over it. That way, predictable spills will not be as noticeable.

• Give your guests wine charms with their glasses. This helps eliminate the guesswork of deciding which glass belongs to you after you’ve put it down for a moment.

• Decorate with large bunches of both red and green grapes, colorful autumn fruit, flowers and leaves.

• As a take-home gift make some individual wine tags, or give each guest a special wine glass.
   

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