Wine tasting parties are a great excuse to get together with friends and enjoy an evening of laughter and good tastes. Green living doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means making responsible choices. When throwing a party for your eco-friendly wine-loving friends, you can have an entertaining evening while protecting and preserving the environment at the same time. Here are a few tips for hosting a great eco wine tasting.

• Wine tastings should take place before a dinner, so plan for a 7:30 start time. Invite around 12 people to attend; any more and it may be difficult to share observations and compare notes.

• Send out email invitations for your wine tasting instead of mailing paper versions. Care2 has awesome e-cards and for every e-card sent, Care2 makes a donation to an environmental nonprofit to save a square foot of rainforest.

• Ask guests to bring their own wine glasses so you won’t have lots of clean up. This will also save you water. Serve organic snacks on biodegradable paper plates or recycled tableware rather than plastic. Use linen in place of paper napkins.

• Prepare or purchase organic, local food. Dry crackers, bread and a variety of mild cheeses are good companions for wine. They help neutralize the palate between tastings. Purchase wines made of certified organically grown grapes harvested in an eco responsible manor.

• Four to six wines, (from within two types), is the approximate number of wines to compare and rate. For the best tasting, start out with the lighter bodied wines and then move on to fuller bodied wines. The general rule is white before red, dry before sweet and light before heavy. Give each person 1 to 2 oz. of each variety and discuss the aroma, taste, body and finish.

• Let guests take home the leftover wine, (if there is any), so there’s no waste. Give a wine saver as a gift to keep any remaining wine as fresh as possible. Often organic wines don’t hold up as long as nonorganic versions once they’re uncorked.

• The goal at your green wine tasting is to have fun and enjoy the company. Here are a few of my favorite organic wines to get you started.

The Sterling 2008 Sauvignon Blanc offers aromas of lime and a hint of fig. The flavors are of grapefruit, lemon-lime and tropical passion fruit-perfect for summer. The Amity Eco-wine 2007 has an aroma of berries and red fruits, with a spice of vanilla. It’s smooth with a long pleasant finish.The Cline Zinfandel 2007 showcases a wide array of dark fruit including black cherry and raspberry. Spicy notes of vanilla and oak add complexity to this wine. Seresin Sauvignon Blanc 2008 displays passion fruit and ripe gooseberry and is textured with a slight creaminess.