There are a number of wine tasting party kits on the market, all of them having the advantage that a wine tasting event, no matter how poorly organized or equipped, is kind of hard to torpedo. A pretty table, delicious snacks, good friends, ten bottles of wine … what possibly could sink this ship? So I had my doubts when I received an email from Time to Wine asking if I’d test their kit for Wine Girl Online. My pessimism deepened when I took the bonus quiz ahead of time and discovered an ill-posed question and an ugly typo.

For how this kit soon cured of my crabbiness, click here:

With the help of the Ladies Tasting Society, I was set straight. Last night, we didn’t just take this wine-tasting kit on a cruise. We braved the Cape of Good Hope in search of the best Argentinean malbec we could drink for under $45. The report?

Time for Wine has put together a handy, good-looking kit that is fully equipped to entertain the wine novice and the jaded palate alike. We were eight women, ranging from a wine professional who worked for a high-end spirits company, to a new member who wouldn’t know a luxury cuvée if it hit her in the wallet. But every last one of us enjoyed the festive components of the kit, the competitive structure of the tasting, and the bonus quiz (Time for Wine’s apparent disinclination toward hiring a proofer notwithstanding).

What sets this kit apart is that it includes a sheet of shiny gold stickers that, after all the wines have been sampled, each guest can adhere to the mylar cover over her favorite bottle. (The bottle with the most stickers wins.) This step caused us endless amusement, emphasis on endless, since one guest had to revisit nearly every bottle before she could decide which deserved her sticker. By the time she did, she bore some resemblance to Eddie and Patsy of Absolutely Fabulous when they visited a château in France, got so schnockered they couldn’t remember which wine they liked best, and so bought them all. After much teasing and laughter, our friend cast her vote — as it turned out, on her own malbec and the winner of the tasting, Monteviejo’s 2005 “Lindaflor.” (Time to Wine recommends that the hostess purchase a little gift for the guest who brought the group favorite.)

As dinner was served, we took the bonus quiz, and were delighted to see the nerds among us stumble over some of the more difficult questions. But like the rest of the kit, the quiz was well-targeted toward the middle of its audience, so enough of us knew some answers — and enough didn’t — to keep it interesting.

I have a couple of caveats: Time to Wine provides a “sign-up sheet” and instructs ask each guest as he arrives to write down the wine he brought, the vintage, and his name. As a result, because some guests will see on the list at least some wine names, the tasting isn’t completely blind; that is, some guests will know what the wines on the table are, even if they don’t know which they are.

This was not a major roadblock for us. In fact, as host the sign-up sheet was a handy reference for me. But any geek will gripe over the fact that the kit doesn’t present clearly either a “double blind” tasting, where the only thing tasters know is the theme (in which case the host would have to fill out the sign-up sheet after the bags came off, or do it before and not participate in the competition), or a single blind tasting, where tasters know the specific wines on the table, but not which of them is being poured at the moment.

My other minor kvetch is about the poor editing of the kit’s materials. It’s important, even for novices, that a guide like this (and that costs $25) seem authoritative. So questions should be posed clearly (does the test mean per capita when it asks which country drinks the most wine?), key words like “vintner” should be spelled correctly, and instructions should not be misleading. (I’m still wondering how I’m going to find examples for the proposed tasting theme of “red chardonnay versus white chardonnay.”)

Again, though, these are nitpicks. Overall this is a delightful wine tasting kit and I’d recommend if for anyone throwing a tasting party, whether your guests are Robert Parker Jrs. or recent converts from beer. Everyone will enjoy the trip.