The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - The Problem With Most Corporate Dinners - What Makes a Corporate Dinner Successful - 15 Corporate Dinner Ideas That Work - Planning Your Corporate Dinner: A Quick Framework - Common Corporate Dinner Mistakes - How The Wine Voyage Designs Corporate Dinners - Further Reading The Problem With Most Corporate Dinners I've produced a lot of corporate dinners. Sit-down affairs at nice restaurants, buffet receptions in hotel ballrooms, cocktail parties at rooftop bars. Most of them were fine. A few were great. And the difference between fine and great almost never came down to the food. The best corporate dinners I've been part of had a structure — some kind of thread running through the evening that gave people a reason to talk to each other. The worst ones were expensive meals where people sat with whoever they already knew and left without having learned a single new thing about a single colleague. Corporate dinner ideas are everywhere online. Most of them just t...

Table of Contents - What Makes a Private Wine Tasting Event Work - Choosing a Theme for Your Private Wine Tasting Event - How Many Wines to Include - Wine Selection and Ordering - Food Pairing for Private Tastings - Glassware and Equipment - Setting Up the Room - When to Hire a Professional Host - Virtual Private Wine Tasting Events - How Much Does a Private Wine Tasting Event Cost? - Common Mistakes to Avoid - Further Reading I've hosted hundreds of private wine tasting events over the years — small dinner parties, corporate buyouts, milestone celebrations, bachelorette weekends — and the ones people remember aren't the ones with the most expensive bottles. They're the ones with the clearest story. A private wine tasting event is different from a wine tasting party in one key way: it's curated. Someone made deliberate choices about what you're tasting and why. The bottles aren't random. The progression means something. And a good host — or a good self-guided st...

Table of Contents - What Makes a Private Wine Tasting Event Work - Choosing a Theme for Your Private Wine Tasting Event - How Many Wines to Include - Wine Selection and Ordering - Food Pairing for Private Tastings - Glassware and Equipment - Setting Up the Room - When to Hire a Professional Host - Virtual Private Wine Tasting Events - How Much Does a Private Wine Tasting Event Cost? - Common Mistakes to Avoid - Further Reading I've hosted hundreds of private wine tasting events over the years — small dinner parties, corporate buyouts, milestone celebrations, bachelorette weekends — and the ones people remember aren't the ones with the most expensive bottles. They're the ones with the clearest story. A private wine tasting event is different from a wine tasting party in one key way: it's curated. Someone made deliberate choices about what you're tasting and why. The bottles aren't random. The progression means something. And a good host — or a good self-guided st...

Table of Contents - Why Scotch Whisky Deserves Its Own Deep Dive - What Makes Scotch Whisky Scotch - The Five Scotch Whisky Regions - Single Malt vs. Blended: The Real Difference - How Age Statements Work - How to Taste Scotch Whisky - A Tasting Vocabulary for Scotch Whisky - Where to Start: Bottles for Different Tastes - Scotch Whisky for Group Tastings and Corporate Events - Further Reading Why Scotch Whisky Deserves Its Own Deep Dive I came to scotch whisky through wine. That probably sounds backwards, but it makes sense: both are made from raw agricultural ingredients, both are shaped by where they come from, and both reward the same kind of attention — slow, curious, without judgment. Once I started working more spirit-forward events, scotch whisky became one of my favorite categories to present to groups because it has so much to say for itself. A glass of well-made scotch whisky is a complete story. You taste the barley, the water, the peat if it's there, the wood the spirit...

Table of Contents - Why Scotch Whisky Deserves Its Own Deep Dive - What Makes Scotch Whisky Scotch - The Five Scotch Whisky Regions - Single Malt vs. Blended: The Real Difference - How Age Statements Work - How to Taste Scotch Whisky - A Tasting Vocabulary for Scotch Whisky - Where to Start: Bottles for Different Tastes - Scotch Whisky for Group Tastings and Corporate Events - Further Reading Why Scotch Whisky Deserves Its Own Deep Dive I came to scotch whisky through wine. That probably sounds backwards, but it makes sense: both are made from raw agricultural ingredients, both are shaped by where they come from, and both reward the same kind of attention — slow, curious, without judgment. Once I started working more spirit-forward events, scotch whisky became one of my favorite categories to present to groups because it has so much to say for itself. A glass of well-made scotch whisky is a complete story. You taste the barley, the water, the peat if it's there, the wood the spirit...

Table of Contents - Why Houston Is a Great City for Team Building - The Case for Sensory Experiences as Team Building - 15 Team Building Activities Houston Groups Love - Matching the Activity to Your Team's Needs - Planning Tips for Houston Team Events - How The Wine Voyage Serves Houston Teams - Further Reading Why Houston Is a Great City for Team Building Houston surprises people. It's the fourth-largest city in the US, home to world-class restaurants, a thriving arts scene, incredible cultural diversity, and an energy industry that's produced some of the most competitive, fast-moving corporate cultures I've ever worked with. When I'm planning team building activities in Houston, I never feel short of options — but I do have opinions about which ones actually work. After fifteen years producing corporate events, I've learned that the best team building activities do three things: they get people out of their roles for a few hours, they create a shared memory, ...