Last night I went to Vinopolis for the launch of their new Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Bar. I dutifully drank my way through Champagne brand Nicolas Feuillatte‘s Brut Reserve Particulière, Brut Vintage and Rosé Vintage, all of which I’d happily and somewhat drunkenly recommend.

The bar is a large and luxurious space decorated with wenge wood and veneered oak, plus some big comfy chairs to recline in should the bubbles go to your head. It can be visited on a Vinopolis wine tour (either as part of the Celebration Tour or by purchasing an upgrade.)

The launch party was also a chance to take a peek at the rest of Vinopolis and appreciate just how big it is. Their event space was particularly impressive.

I’m not sure if my sense of sight, smell or taste let me down when I caught up with Meet & Wine on one of its regular wine club meetings at Meat and Wine at Westfield London last week.

Meat & Wine is the only restaurant of the worldwide chain in the UK. The menu includes a range of steaks as well as specialist meats such as kudu, ostrich and kangaroo. There is a huge wine list (at reasonable prices) to match your choice.  

Exposed stone, rich reds and browns, spacious seating with big tables, and candle-light reflecting off thousands of wine bottles in glass towers give a lush feel. It’s a steak house with a bit of class.

We had a wonderful intro from Ryan Morgan, representative of Rathbone Wine Group. He comes from the Margaret River region near Perth, which sounds simply fabulous: “You’re either a winemaker, a surfer, or you run an arts-and-crafts shop.”

Ryan ran through prominent Australian varieties and regions, and topped up our knowledge of vintages, alcohol content and price points before we began the blind tasting. 

Looking at the results, my team lacked both a nose and a palate, but knew approximately how much a wine should cost and how alcoholic it was.

Meet & Wine events offer different wine experiences each time – one popular summer event involved matching wines with barbecued meats. 

All the events are designed to improve your wine knowledge and palate while having fun. I’m no connoisseur and had a fabulous time. You just need to enjoy wine to have fun!

Next year, the Meet & Wine evenings will be quarterly, kicking off with a Valentines-themed evening of bubbles in February. Keep an eye on the site for more info.

Vinopolis stages a comedy night called Laughter Lounge the last Friday of every month so my mate Jo and I went along to check it out. As neither of us had done a Vinopolis wine tour before and share a deep, rather uneducated passion for drinking (wine in particular) we thought we would sign up for the Grapevine tour as well.

Our Grapevine tour kicked off with a 20 minute lecture which was brilliant. We learned how to look, smell, slurp and identify the complexities, balance and age of wine. Then we were let loose on the labyrinth of regional wine rooms. Armed with tasting vouchers we put our new wine powers to the test.

The highlight was definitely the initial lecture, after which we sampled some lovely wines from Lebanon and Greece that we would never have bought from an off-license. The tour is an educational experience rather than an opportunity to get sozzled. That said, the final gin cocktail definitely put a spring in our step in preparation for the Vinopolis Laughter Lounge.

Located in another part of Vinopolis’s wonderful cavernous stone areas, the Laughter Lounge is a large room with a stage, bar and seats.

The evening was held together by MC Dan Atkinson whose self depreciating, political gags really did make everyone laugh out loud. Other acts included Matt Blaize and the brilliantly camp Topping and Butch whose fabulous, stupidly revealing rubber costumes and cheeky ‘Never Mind, Never Mind’ cabaret songs stole the show.

Although the seats are arranged auditorium style, it’s a pretty relaxed atmosphere that encourages everyone to make as many trips to the bar as possible. Which makes perfect sense, as it is a Friday night and Vinopolis is London’s shrine to wine.