Vinopolis

I did the wine tasting with Oz Clarke at Vinopolis today and I'd recommend it to anyone. Oz brings equal amounts of wit and wisdom to a session that is only supposed to last one hour but ran a good 30 minutes over with all the questions and Oz's wine monlogues. That guy can talk and certainly knows his stuff - I came away knowing why Chilian Merlot isn't actually Merlot, why the love affair with Chardonnay is over and how the Aussies have conquered the world of wine. For L59 you get to focus on five selected wines and then you're left to explore the Vinopolis Grapevine tour. Oh and today we got a signed copy of the Oz Clarke Pocket Wine Guide 2009. It's not your average wine tasting - Oz makes it a unique and highly enjoyable seminar.

Living in London I'm aware of the rip-offs, but my girlfriend and I were given tickets to a vinopolis wine tasting as a gift. The tickets were L20.00 for each of us I believe. Essentially you get a brief talk on how to appreciate wine through smell, appearance, look, and taste. You then stroll off with five vouchers that entitle you to five TINY measures of either new or old world wines. However, take care not to choose a premium wine or the rude employee will want two of your vouchers.

Essentially, you could replicate this experience in a more rewarding way by going to any bar and asking for a different decent glasses of wine over the course of five rounds. It would be cheaper and you'd get a full measure.

I went to Vinopolis on a Sunday afternoon as a group of 6. We paid L25 each on the door and for this we got tokens for 5 wine tastings; 2 premium wine tastings; 3 rum tastings and a bombay sapphire cocktail.

We arrived just after 2pm and the place was quite empty, so we were able to peruse the selections and choose any wine we fancied. I did notice when we were leaving at around 4pm there were lots of people waiting for the 4pm wine talk.

I was able to try wines I'd probably never buy around L30 a bottle and also wines from Thailand; Brazil and other regions I would not usually try. The rum tastings (proper shots!) were fun and the bombay sapphire cocktail delicious (even though I usually 'hate' gin!).

I had a pleasant afternoon with family and they all agreed that for them it was a worthwhile experience, However, it was a bit hit and miss for me as an overall experience. I didn't come out of it feeling like I'd learned much as I have done when I've been on whiskey tours where there is a more personal touch in the form of a guide. I do accept this isn't a tour as such but I'm sure there must be a better way of doing this or laying out the exhibitions. Perhaps with hindsight I should have got the audio tour, though this was an extra cost I wasn't prepared to pay at the time and wasn't recommended at the entrance desk.