I'm a little curious. I like having people over but some of them know a little about wine!

Can you tell us what is your background? How long have you been drinking wine and how long in the business? What wines do you like and how many do you typically taste in a year? Thanks!

Imdurand, during very, very slow years when I travel at length to places where wines are few and far between, I taste a couple of hundred different wines, and during busy years multiples of that. In no way am I in the wine industry. Merely an enthusiastic amateur. I drink in detail from more wine regions a year than you quote for bottles in a month, and have done so for more than 30 years. I only consider myself an enthusiastic amateur, and am still learning every day. I'm sure that the pros on this site, like GregDP and GregT and others, as well as many others elsewhere in the wine industry you seem to be joining the fringes of, drink several multiples of my number of bottles, year in and year out, and educate themselves in a multitude of other ways about the wines they deal in.

I also enjoy having friends and new acquaintances over for lunch or dinner or just a few drinks, and serving them good wine from all over the world. I've even done it a few times with winery or wineshop owners providing (and offering) their wares, though not so often. But I don't push any wine, and just want my friends to enjoy pleasant social experiences in wine and other things.

It seems we've reached a new milestone in wine industry growth with networked or pyramid sales systems making their appearance. Having lived overseas for several years, now, I seem to have missed the advent of Napaplonk 'parties' in the place of Amway or Tupperware or Avon or...

My wife and I have hosted at home tastings in our home in Michigan on three occasions, all with a company named PRP. The first one we did to jump in and try to expose ourselves to wines with labels other than Gallo, St. Julian and Sutter Home. The presenter knew a lot about wine itself, and put on a great -101 class for us. The second time we did it to add some fun to a long, dreary winter in Mid-Michigan. The final time was about 8 years ago, to introduce some novice friends to a larger "world view" of wine. Now with about 15 years of wine drinking experience, we have accumulated a list of wines we like, and host our own tasting parties at home, featuring several bottles of the same type of wine to compare for the experienced tasters. It's fun putting together a list to introduce the newbies to as well. I see a place for an "at-home" enterprise for wine parties. Once you have some experience with wines, an average consumer may find the courage to put one on himself, without the pressure to make a purchase. And that is my 2 cents.

But it needn't be formal at all. Many years ago I wanted to learn about wine faster than drinking one bottle at time would allow and w/out waiting for someone to hold a class on the wines I was interested in so I just bought a load of bottles and invited friends over.

It wasn't random. They were all zins, same vintage, and the idea was to find out which we liked most and buy more of it. I had no idea what I was doing but it didn't really require much courage, just a few people who were free on a Friday night.

That eventually led to other things over the years. These days I taste a fair bit of wine. Had there been someone able to come to the house back then to teach us, I probably would have gone for it but I'd have expected them to know a lot more than I did if they wanted to be paid for their time.

Will do ;)