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Members When inviting people to join, make sure everyone's level of knowledge is roughly the same. This will determine whether to focus on something simple, such as California Zinfandel, or something rarefied, for instance grand cru Chablis from 2001.
Price Set an upper-limit price for bottles. You can find great choices for under $20, so don't feel compelled to spend more.
Glasses Everyone should bring a glass. After each wine, simply have each person dump the excess into a pitcher and rinse the glass, rather than provide eight or 10 glasses per person.
Tasting Ask members to e-mail the host with the name of the wine they're bringing. The host should print out tasting sheets listing each wine, with space to write comments about it. Blind tasting—when bottles are hidden in bags to conceal their identities—is fun for people who are wine-savvy, but isn't really appropriate for neophytes.
Venue Tseckares's group usually meets at a local restaurant that gives them a special deal: $75 per person for four courses, corkage fees included. Some groups meet at members' homes on a rotating basis; often each person is asked to bring something to eat, too.
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