Wine Appreciation and Tasting

Tutored wine tastings are available for corporate parties, with the backing of one of London's best-known independent wine shippers.

The normal format is to run the event as a light-hearted competition, with guests in pairs or teams, dependent on numbers. They are given 3 white wines and 3 reds to taste, and by using the notes supplied, they have to try to identify correctly specifics such as the grape variety, origin and vintage.

The tutor starts by teaching the guests how to taste wines (sniff-schlurp-spit), but the spitting is not compulsory. During the tasting he will give helpful clues, answer questions and ensure that the guests have fun as well as learning something about the wines.

When the teams have completed the answers, their sheets are passed up for marking, and the tutor gives out the correct answers, plus some additional information about the wines they have been tasting.

Duration is usually about 1½-2 hours.

Ideally, teams should be sitting down together, with a small table (coffee table or similar) for each team. Each guest will need 3 glasses, and each team will need an ice bucket or similar receptacle to spit or empty glasses into. This should be arranged in advance with the hotel or venue as we are not normally in a position to provide glasses.

Tastings are normally themed. Our standard is 'Classic Grape Varieties of the World.'  Other themes such as 'A Selection of French Wines costing over £50 per bottle' (!) are available if the client wishes, or if it is a repeat booking for a group of guests who have recently done a tasting with us.

Costs

For the Classic Grape Varieties tasting, we work to a budget of £15 per bottle + VAT in order to ensure that you get good quality and an interesting range of wines, however we are happy to work to your own budget, as required.

One bottle of each wine will provide a tasting sample for 15 people, so for a party of 25 people, you would need 2 bottles of each wine, for example.

£550 + VAT for up to 20 guests, for the tutor and all documentation
£750 + VAT for groups of 21-50 guests, as above plus an assistant

plus the cost of the wines provided, for venues within 50 miles of London. 

(Please enquire for other locations and larger group sizes).