The Wine Pull is a great way game to play throughout the night of your fundraising auction or charity event. The majority of the wine pull will happen during the cocktail hour or silent auction.
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What you will need:
A variety of donated wine: a couple really nice bottles, mostly $10-$15 bottles, and you can even throw in a one or two $3 buck chucks if you are feeling particularly silly (see here how to get wine donated for auction items). Ideally 25-50 bottles.
Wine sized paper bags (these would work, but even though these are a little more expensive, people appreciate having a handle so they can still mingle while carrying their wine).
Corks (as many as you have bottles), so start drinking. Only sort of kidding, you can get some on amazon too. I’ll let you decide how you acquire corks, but I know which one sounds more fun.
A basket or something to place the corks in
Permanent Markers
1-2 volunteers to run the booth
optional: Red and White ribbon. This is if you want to give your guests the option of selecting a red or white wine. Poll your committee and see if this matters to them. I don’t believe it impacts the success of your wine pull, but some guests may appreciate it.
optional: gift tags
How to set up the wine pull:
You will start by collecting all your bottles and placing them in the paper bags and then number each one. Then take your corks and use a permanent marker to number the corks. You will have the same number of corks as you have bottles. You can reuse the same corks year after year (yay!). If you are choosing to let your guests choose red vs. white, make sure you separate the corks with the corresponding bags so they don’t get mixed up.
When you get to the venue, you will have all the bottles out on the table, with the numbers facing forward. (note, if you would rather have the bottles on display, you can use gift tags to number the wines).
Place the numbered corks in a basket (two separate ones if you are doing red vs. white)
How to play the wine pull:
After the guests pay to play “Wine Pull” the volunteer will hold out the basket and the guest will pick a cork. The volunteer will grab the corresponding wine bottle for the cork.
Side note: many guests will ask if the volunteers can hold their bottles until the end of the night. This is why I recommend using the bags with the handles because it allows the guests to take the wine with little inconvenience. If you have multiple volunteers at the table, you could receive the bidders name and bid number and bring the bottle to silent auction checkout. It’s a hassle, so my recommendation is that you just encourage the guests to carry the bottle with them so there are no mix-ups at the end of the night.
How much should a single “wine pull” cost and how should they pay?
If you are asking the guests to pay cash, it should cost $20. Most of the bottles donated will be around that $10-$20 mark, but a few will be worth way more. This is the fun of the game.
If you are using a mobile bidding software, talk to your contact with the software you chose and they can help you set up an option to buy a turn at the wine pull in the mobile bidding software. This is my recommendation because fewer people are bringing cash to these events since mobile bidding makes purchasing items and donating so accessible.
If you are not using a mobile bidding software, and you want to offer your guests an option other than cash, have the volunteers collect the guests’ names and bidder numbers and then they can pay at the end of the night during checkout with the rest of their auction items and donations.
