It would be an understatement to say that wine tasting is exciting and pleasant. Wine tasting experiences can educate and inspire, and not just with regards to new flavours and smells, but also new places and new people; especially when you combine it with wine travel.
In this roundup review of what is available for you in terms of wine tasting experiences in and around London, apart from fairly obvious choices we also cover online wine tasting experiences, wine bars, short trips and wine clubs, we feature more extensive wine tours when you need to travel. Read on and we hope you have an exciting time evaluating what wine tasting experience to do next.
Wine shops with wine dispensing machines
The easiest way how you can do some wine tasting today. No booking required. Just visit either The Sampler or Vagabond Wines (we have reviewed them both earlier, so feel free to have a look), buy a wine tasting card, preload some cash to it and then using their wine dispensing machines just taste away. It is amazing how easy it is, you can taste wines which retail for £50 or even £100 or more and pay just a few pounds for a tasting measure. Their knowledgeable staff can help with navigating through the labels and styles. We did not have a bad experience with them ever, so these two are highly recommended.
Tasting at home at your leisure by ordering wine tasting kits online
When traveling to central London is a but too much for you and you still want to enlarge your horizons in terms of different wines, you can go for a Vinoa box. Just order one and you will get 4 little bottles of wine (each of 50ml measure) delivered straight to your door for £9.99. There is no obligation to continue and their concept works that if you like the wine you can buy full bottles from their store. Artisan wines are their focus, so you won’t be tasting something that is everywhere in the shops. The wines come with a small brochure so you can learn more about them. Among three or four boxes that we’ve received we did not have any organic wines and sometimes the wines were slightly weird, but some boxes were simply divine and interesting to taste.
Wine tasting at wine bars
It is very easy to just pop in to your favourite wine bar and order a few glasses of wine that you never tried. Would it be a wine tasting experience? Yes it will be. Will you learn much? Not too sure.
Take Gordon’s Wine Bar at Embankment – they are one of the oldest ones in London and it is quite pleasant to sip some wine on their terrace when the sun is shining, no doubts about that, but your wine tasting experience is limited to a very quick decision what to get from their bar, and then a quick stroll back to a table outside. Due to it being normally quite packed it feels like it is rude to ask the guys about the wines – the queues are just so big.
A better option is a chain called Vinoteca. They do have a very nice wine bar list, so many good wines are available by the glass, including some examples they serve from the keg. It is almost like a beer! Remarkable. You can also buy a bottle of that keg wine to take away. We had a bottle of a very good red wine from Montsant for just over £8. Very good indeed. Yet again, busy bar means a very limited advice and learning.
Wine tasting experiences: short tours
Virgin Experience Days offers a good selection of wine tasting tours for a day or a weekend that you can pre-book without breaking the bank. Short tours can cost you as little as £10-£24 with the weekend options to be pricier and will depend on your commute and hotel options.
Short tours are normally conducted to more or less local English vineyards. So for example you can get a vineyard tour and wine tasting for two for just £39 and you can invite a loved one or a friend to accompany you on your wine tasting experience in Hastings, East Sussex. Have a look at their full range of wine tasting experiences, it is fairly seasonal so the offers will change from time to time.
Wine club: tutored wine tasting experiences
Wine clubs like Laithwaite’s Wine and Sunday Times Wine Club believe that a good way for you to get the most of your wine club subscription is to taste wines together with them, it is slightly more personal than receiving your case of wine with tasting notes in the box and provides more learning opportunities.
If you join these clubs expect at least 2 wine tasting festivals that they organise around the country. The entry ticket will give you the opportunity to taste most of their wine range, so you can tailor your wine subscription boxes further. The tickets are a very good value, but expect crowds as these events are very popular.
You can check our detailed review on the best wine clubs in the UK and decide which ones to join, yet it would be difficult to beat tastings organised by Laithwaite’s!
Long haul wine tasting trips
Those who tried it all or almost all in the UK will be poised to try wine tasting trips abroad. It is quite natural as even though we like English wine a lot (mostly white off dry and some exceptional sparkling wines), we like reds far too much, but also want to learn more and explore.
Our recent discovery was a guided tour to Priorat, organised by a very attentive guide from Sweet&Easy Tours. Email them quoting Dimitri or I Blame The Wine and they will provide you with a personalised quote for a wine tasting trip in Penedes, Priorat, Montsant (all around Barcelona and Tarragona) with 15% off. Sweet.
If you want to book some other countries, we don’t have that many amazing offers, but our trip to New York and visiting some really exciting upstate vineyards proved that you can make it on the budget with Expedia.
Wine Tasting experiences: our verdict
We believe that personal experience of knowledgeable staff will never get out of fashion or use, so find a very good specialist wine store like The Sampler or Vagabond and put their wine tasting card to a good use, talk to their advisors and learn more about an exciting world of wine.
This has been fun sharing these tips with you, yet sharing is caring – make sure you share with with your friends, but also get back to us about your favourite places to do some wine tasting, be it in specialised stores or online via wine clubs. Get in touch! Cheers
