DINNER PARTY THEMES AND OTHER IDEAS
Our Liquid Style Downloadable Mixer screams for you and your guests to get dressed up. Alluding to our “individuality” reference above, the theme can take you in many directions. Maybe a mixer with pre-recorded TV Fashion Shows as the backdrop --– rent a big screen for splash? Maybe your own makeover mixer with an Italian twist? Our favorite makeover shows include TLC’s “What Not to Wear” and Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Maybe a costume party poking fun at the outrageous fashions that strut the glamorous runways of New York, Milan and Paris. How many times have you said, “Who would ever wear that?” Get creative and have fun. It’s all Fabulous!

MUSIC
A fashion mixer surely begs for techno. Start slow with some ambient acid jazz and trance grooves, and then slowly up the tempo as the night progresses to jungle and house. Check out http://www.dancerecords.com/ to find your way. Or, to create an ambience beyond hip, splurge and hire a DJ to spin. Local nightclubs can offer good references; just tell them your needs and desires.

ORDERING YOUR WINE
Basically, there are 4 - 5 glasses of wine in every bottle, so we suggest you order 6 bottles of wine for every 4 - 8 people. Note that you don't have to finish every opened bottle of wine or polish off every glass. Below, we'll supply tips on dump buckets, responsible hospitality and how to store opened, unfinished wine.

WINE.COM BRINGS ECCO DOMANI TO YOUR DOORSTEP

As far as the cost of wine, you might want to make arrangements in advance with your guests that go beyond just assigning tasks for the evening. You may want to determine the overall cost of wine and appetizers in advance and divide evenly among your guests. If your guests are online, try coordinating your mixer with Yahoo Groups. And when it comes to collecting the bucks, it can be as simple as having them ante-up as they walk in the door. If so, we suggest you make it fun by creating a donation tin for Bacchus, the God of Wine. Be creative.

STORING YOUR WINE
Once you've ordered and received your wines, keep them in the wine.com insulated shipping box until the day of your mixer (unless you are blessed with a wine cellar). Once you've checked your order, just shove the box in the back of a cool closet. On the day of your dinner party, be sure to pull out your wines and place the white wines in the refrigerator approximately 2 hours before dinner. Red wine bottles should be cool to the touch, not warm. If you happen to forget, or are running late, chilling white wines in a bucket of ice and water will have them ready for sipping in 20 minutes.

SETTING UP THE MIXER
TO facilitate interaction between guests and to keep traffic flowing, create multiple stations throughout your home or apartment. Set up stations representing each wine you will be pouring. Ecco Domani’s Downloadable PDF files include the winemaker notes and labels. Simply print them and place at corresponding wine stations.

Open all wines at once and gently replace their corks into the neck. Replacing the corks will guard against spills, while allowing you to re-cork any leftover wine at the end of the evening (more on this later). If you order more than two bottles of each wine, keep the extras in reserve and open appropriately or when requested by thirsty guests. Have one wineglass per guest plus 20% for back up.

When pouring wine during your mixer, make sure guests understand that they are "tasting" not "drinking" and should pace themselves as they move through the wines. We also recommend that you place a dump bucket at each wine station. These can be as classy as Champagne buckets or as simple as empty coffee cans. (However, Liquid Style calls for something more innovative with a styling twist.) This way your guests can taste and dump any wines as they move through the line up. Again, keep tastes small until guests find what they like. When they find what they like, then pour a full glass to enjoy. Encourage comments. Above all, enjoy the fruit of the vine!

RE-CORKING THE LEFTOVERS
As we mentioned above, don't throw away your corks. If you have leftover wines at the end of the evening, re-cork the bottles and stick them in the fridge. Yes, and the red wines. They'll easily last 3 - 5 days. You might also divvy up the wines at the end of the evening and send them home with friends – just make sure the bottles are re-corked, stored in the locked trunk of a car, and that the driver is sober.