Vinopolis

I attended Vinopolis as part of a celebration for my friend’s birthday in the hope of either learning something or at the very least getting drunk. Unfortunately neither was possible.

I had been wine tasting once before and was aware we might tread over some old ground, but despite this I was wholeheartedly disappointed. We were treated to the briefest of demonstrations on how to taste wine and what flavours we might generally expect (no detail on different grapes, or specialities of particular regions) before being ushered into the directionless wine tasting ‘tour’. I agree with the comment that it gave the impression more of a hastily arranged corporate event than a permanent museum.

However, the key gripe is clearly the value. For £22.50, one receives 5 basic wine tasting vouchers, 2 premium vouchers and one Bombay Saphire voucher. One voucher can be exchanged for what appeared to be a 25ml shot of wine, something I considered to be very poor value. I would have been happy to pay this amount had the options been truly excellent wines which are unavailable to the average consumer and worth substantially more, but the fact of the matter was that most could have been taken from a typical supermarket shelf. Even the premium bottles were not in excess of the £20 price bracket.

Add to this the scrummage to get to the limited number of servers and their inability or unwillingness to offer any insight, and I was left with little more than a desire to get round the corner to the nearest Southbank pub.

Pretentious and overpriced. Avoid.

I went to Vinopolis with a group of friends - we had Oyster card '2 for 1' offers (also exists on the trains - see the network rail website under 'offers'). This meant we only had to pay about £10 each. For that, we got an intro to wine tasting, 5 (small) tastings of our choice, and a gin cocktail.

The idea is a good one - a wine tasting museum by the region. However sadly Vinopolis doesnt quite work because the educational part of the museum/site is so badly laid out. Instead of travelling through the regions or countries in an enjoyable or logical way, we ended up walking in circles not able to read anything of much value, and then having to join queues to get to the table where wine bottles were laid out in a rather amateur way. It all felt more like a haphasard, hastily put together event, than a permanent museum.

Although I tasted some nice wine, and we had fun discussing them, I think Vinopolis should rethink the layout and displays or else charge a bit less.

I wouldnt rush to come here if I was a tourist - cheaper and more pleasant to buy some nice bottles and sit by the river and enjoy them with the nice view of London! Or at least try to get an offer or coupon so that you dont pay the full price.

Unfortunately I can't comment on the experience itself. Despite taking our money for a wine experience (through last minute.com) Vinopolis have consistently failed to supply the required voucher for admission. After much effort on the telephone we have been promised that they are 'in the post' on multiple occasions, but they have never turned up.

Terrible customer service from both Vinopolis and last minute.com - they have had our money for a month and failed to provide the ordered service. they've also failed to provide proper explainations of why it is so difficult to deliver a simple piece of paper.

It's a shame because the greatest experience in the world will never make up for such shoddy treatment before even getting to the venue.

Don't order Vinopolis through last minute.com, it's not a saving when it takes umpteen phone calls and a lot of time and effort to get the product you ordered. Especially when they have your money already in their bank account. If this is typical of Vinopolis' customer service attitude I would think twice about using them at all.