Private Wine Tastings in Westchester County
I'm Zach Glassman, a Certified Sommelier, and I host private wine tastings at homes and private venues across Westchester County, New York. Every tasting runs $350 an hour with a three-hour minimum, any group size, and I plan the wine and the format around whatever the host actually wants. Book a free fifteen-minute call and we will work out the details together.
Where tastings happen
Most Westchester tastings happen in a home dining room or a finished basement bar, set up the same way a dinner party would be, with the group seated around one table and pours moving through a sequence I've built ahead of time. Clubs host me too: a book club rotating through a member's living room, a neighborhood group meeting at someone's house for a Friday session, or a private club that wants a guided evening instead of a lecture. Fundraisers are a regular booking as well, with a ticketed tasting anchoring the evening and the wine itself becoming part of the draw.
- Scarsdale
- Rye
- Chappaqua
- Bronxville
- Larchmont
- Armonk
- Bedford
- Katonah
Do you travel to Westchester County?
Travel to Westchester County is included in what I offer for private wine tastings, with stops in Scarsdale, Rye, Bedford, Katonah, and towns in between. I'm based in Riverhead, New York, and most of Westchester County falls within the travel range already built into the $350 hourly rate; anything beyond that is billed at cost.
Westchester County spans a wide range of drive times from Riverhead, so I confirm the specific travel cost, if any, when we schedule the date rather than guessing in advance.
The $350 hourly rate and three-hour minimum apply the same way everywhere I travel, whether the group is six people or sixty.
Where do Westchester tastings usually happen?
Westchester tastings usually happen inside a home, most often the dining room or a downstairs bar, set up so the whole group can sit together for pours and conversation. I also host at clubs and community spaces around Scarsdale, Rye, Chappaqua, and nearby towns, whenever the group prefers a shared venue over someone's living room.
Can you host a tasting for a book club, a neighborhood group, or a fundraiser?
Book clubs, neighborhood groups, and fundraiser committees are regular bookings for me across Westchester County. A book club tasting usually rotates to a different member's home each time, a neighborhood group often books a Friday evening, and a fundraiser pairs a guided tasting with a ticketed program, with proceeds supporting the cause, not wine sales.
For a fundraiser, I usually work with the committee ahead of time on a price per ticket, a wine list that fits the cause and the crowd, and a short guided format so the evening still leaves room for the rest of the program.
Neighborhood groups and book clubs tend to book the same three-hour format as a private dinner party, just split among more households instead of one.
What is a good format for a Westchester dinner party?
A Westchester dinner party works well as a guided tasting that leads straight into the meal: five or six wines, poured and discussed course by course, so wine and dinner become one conversation instead of two. I build the sequence around the menu the host is already planning, not the other way around.
How does the wine list get built for a Westchester event?
The wine list for a Westchester event starts with a conversation about the group and the occasion. As a wine expert with fifteen years in the business, I build a list of specific bottles and where to find them locally, and the host buys everything ahead of the date. I never bring or deliver the wine myself.
I build most Westchester lists around retailers already local to towns like Scarsdale, Armonk, and Bedford, since the goal is a list the host can actually source without hunting.
If a host wants to feature a bottle from their own cellar, I build the rest of the tasting around it instead of replacing it.
Wine, locally
Westchester is commuter-town entertaining with city-caliber expectations. A lot of the hosts I work with are in Manhattan several nights a week for dinner, and they want a Friday or Saturday at home in Scarsdale or Rye to hold up against that standard. That means I build lists with some ambition in them, a Burgundy alongside a California Pinot, or a Barolo next to a domestic Cabernet, rather than defaulting to whatever bottle is easiest to find.
Westchester also has serious wine retail of its own, from Scarsdale to Armonk to Bedford, which is part of why the buy-it-yourself approach works so well here. I send the host a list with specific bottles and where to find them, and the shop nearby usually has most of it in stock. Nobody is waiting on a shipment or hoping a distributor can source something in time; the host is picking bottles up on the way home from work.
Not in Westchester County on tasting day, or want a wine expert year-round? The Wine Line is a wine expert on call by text, and it works anywhere in the United States.
Plan your tasting in Westchester County.
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