Like wine?
Like drinking wine?
Like learning about wine?
Like trying new wines, with the emphasis being on finding ones you like best?
Like finding out about spirits as well?
If you 'like' any of these likes, then you should probably scoot on down to
Vinopolis, which is basically a huge wine and spirit tasting warehouse underneath one of the viaducts below the train line leading out of London Bridge Station,
Maybe a warehouse is too crude a description for this mecca for fermented grapes, wheat, hops, rye and other ferment-able grains, for it's quite a civilised, and sometimes serious place – some people take their appreciation of wine quite seriously. Wines are laid out with useful descriptions of each and they're all available for you to taste, and potentially buy afterward. But it's not all just geared up to matching you to your perfect vines and vintages and then flogging it to you, it's also a place to learn about the history of various alcoholic beverages, about matching wines and food – and cheese, and about mixing a damn fine cocktail. As well as their almost excessively varied selection of wine they run wine classes and master classes almost every day of the year.
There are several different ways to experience Vinopolis. There's a range of
self guided ticket options which include tasting tickets for different spirited rooms, including the microbrewery, the champagne bar, the Chivas (whisky) Room and the Blue Room (sponsored by Bombay Sapphire. There are also options that allow you to take a tipple of rum and a thimble or so of absinthe. The big ticket is called 'Vinopolis Celebrations' and really allows you to taste to your full, including:
Six regular wine tastings and three premium wine tastings
- Two whisky tastings
- Two beer tastings
- Three champagne tastings
- And a Bombay Sapphire Cocktail...
Not sure what order you do them in - but the key would be to take your time. You're also given a complimentary notebook with all tickets so you can record your musings.
If you need some direction, or at least a better understanding of the 'best' order to taste things in then a
guided tour will be your safest bet to book. The website says tours only take an hour, but that's the instructional, chatting bit, and you're able to do additional tasting after the tour. Of course. One of the good things about Vinopolis is that there are always plenty of people around to talk you though what you're tasting and help you find your own top tipple, so if you go it alone you can still ask as many questions as you like and talk wine shop with the staff until you've had your fill and need to go for a brisk stroll in the open air and maybe get a kebab... There's a Greek restaurant just along the walk...
Not that you need to resort to that: Vinopolis also has its own
restaurant/s and bars, Cantina Vinopolis, Brew Wharf the micobrewery, Wine Wharf and Blue Bar - the Bombay Sapphire bar.
