I’ve always liked drinking wine. I’d even go as far as saying I know a little about the wine I choose to drink – I know my Sauvignon Blanc from my Chardonnay, I know I prefer dry fruity whites to sweet dessert wines, I know what red to pair with steak and what red to glug into my Spaghetti Bolognaise (in my personal opinion, a full bodied red like a Shiraz goes perfectly with a lovely piece of Sirloin, for all those interested). But I didn’t really understand or appreciate how to taste wine correctly – that is, until I visited Vinopolis, London’s wine and spirit tasting venue.
Vinopolis, near London Bridge station, offers a number of different wine tasting tours. At the beginning of each there’s a ‘How to taste wine’ session – a 20 minute talk by a likeable presenter who knows her stuff, armed with a glass of (white) wine each and enough information without being overbearing about the technicalities of tasting and understanding wine. For wine connoisseurs (and that is definitely not me), there probably isn’t that much to learn from the short introduction talk. Saying that, the talk was interesting and was reassuringly guided by a wine expert who taught us the fundamentals – to assess the wine with its colour, its nose and its flavour. We learnt simple things like what to look for when trying to determine the age of the wine (the colour against a white background), how to gauge the alcoholic content of the wine and how to ‘slurp’ the wine correctly so that it coats all of your taste buds therefore allowing you to properly taste the wine.
Once we had received the talk we were handed a number of tokens all corresponding to the tour we had chosen beforehand. We had decided to take the Vinopolis Vineyard tour, a tour that allows you to sample five regular wines, a Bombay Sapphire cocktail (in the specially themed cocktail bar), two premium wines and two rum tastings. It was possible to get different tours – for example, there is an absinth bar where they prepare the absinth properly so that visitors don’t keel over from the sheer alcoholic content, and there is a champagne bar for all the people on the Vinopolis ‘Celebration’ tour.
Vinopolis is housed in beautifully converted railway arches, with brick walls and high ceilings that do everything to add to the experience. The building is split into different sections, which are decorated accordingly – it is possible to sip Italian wine while sitting on a Vespa and shown clips of rural Italy from the perspective of the bike rider. The exhibits are fun and not all are informative – for wine buffs these exhibits could seem tedious and unnecessary, but for the average wine drinker there is information to be learnt if the person wishes to. There is plenty of information on the walls plus visual and audio displays all themed around the wine – separate tables split the wine up into categories (European, Australian, Thai/Chinese and Indian etc) and there is a separate area for the premium wines.
Slightly out of keeping with the wine tasting were the areas for spirit sampling. In particular, the Bombay Sapphire room was an experience on its own. Neon blue lit a corridor decorated with shelves of artistically beautiful cocktail glass designs from all over the world. A professional mixologist served fruity and refreshing cocktails and was happy to talk to us about the origins of the cocktails and could go into length about the gin.
Vinopolis touts itself as a place to visit for a number of reasons – work parties, hen nights and gift ideas are all suggested as reasons to enjoy the tours on offer. When you think of hen nights, you think of rowdy, raucous females wearing ‘learner’ stickers, not people serious about learning how to taste wine. So suddenly the wine tasting may not seem like a good idea. Fortunately, the wine tour we experienced was anything but trashy hen night material. The staff were friendly and informative, the information brief but interesting and the wines on offer were delicious (recommendations were given by the staff).
It was easy to lose two or three hours within the Vinopolis building, walking around the exhibits and sampling wines (and spirits) from around the world. However, be aware, the measures are generous, so by the end of the tour you may think you know more about wine than you really do!
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