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Wine & Tasting

House Pour Olympics

A recurring blind bracket for everyday wine. Each guest brings one bottle under a set price; the table tastes them head to head, blind, and brackets them to a single champion. The winner’s bottle becomes the house pour until someone dethrones it next month. A title to defend is a reason to come back.

Anyone Medium group Any season Medium effort Recurring
Wine educationLow-effort recurring
PurposeBuild a recurring ritual around tasting blind and seeing past the price tag — wine education disguised as a sport.
VoteBracket the bottles blind, round by round, to a single house champion.
RevealUnbag in reverse order — price and label last, so the gap between "what won" and "what cost most" lands.
Run of show

What it's for

Build a recurring ritual around tasting blind and seeing past the price tag — wine education disguised as a sport.

The guest's job

Bring one bagged bottle under the cap and a guess for what beats it.

The vote

Bracket the bottles blind, round by round, to a single house champion.

The reveal

Unbag in reverse order — price and label last, so the gap between "what won" and "what cost most" lands.

Food & drink spine

Palate-clean fuel: bread, mild cheese, water. Save bold food for after the bracket.

Conversation fuel

"Which one would you actually buy?" — and why the cheap one keeps winning.

How it flops — steer around it

Over-pouring. Tasting portions only, or the bracket ends before the final.

A bespoke dinner-party concierge. Vote with conviction; bring something defensible. Themes · Playbook