Vinopolis

We had two £25 tickets. For that we received 5 very small samples of very ordinary wine (perhaps two small glasses in total) and a small tasting cocktail of Bombay Sapphire Gin. I see the ticket prices have now been reduced but even so, they still don't seem like good value for money!

The self-guided "museum" tour is underwhelming. There are displays based on different wine-producing areas of the world. These are instructive only to someone new to wine. The tastings are fine but if that's your thing, better to go to a vineyard or even a liquor store having a tasting - you'd get more enthusiasm and information about the wine. Some of the tasting counters have corporate sponsors. I will say that the Bombay Sapphire gin bar made two of the best gosh-darn cocktails I've ever had.

I would recommend this attraction to someone who did not have to pay for it him/herself. If you are determined to go, look for coupons on lastminute.co.uk. You might consider spending your time and money at the very good affiliated restaurant Cantina Vinopolis instead.

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.