Wine Tasting, Chelsea

Are you something of a bon vivant, or do you just like getting tipsy and looking at things on walls? Either way, right up your street may just be the Saatchi Gallery’s The London Experience, a new annual wine festival held by French wine critics Bettane and Desseavre for European producers to flaunt their wares in our fair capital. The event,  although aimed at trade professionals and wine critics, is also open to those of the public looking for a classy day out, at the price of £30 a ticket.

My invitation came courtesy of CIVCORSE, aka the Corsican Wine Board. Corsican wine producers are the tasty underdogs of the wine world, having only been exporting for 15 years. Their representative Guillarme explained how rather than competing directly with France’s mainland heavyweights, CIVCORSE have been aiming to carve a more exclusive niche by solely supplying high-end bars and merchants.

CIVCORSE had brought some really stand-out wines. The first one Guillarme offered me was a surprisingly beefy (not literally) 2011 rosé called Domaine Sant’Armettu. It was sweet and rich without being sickly. A red wine called Figari from 2009 was also memorable, with its smell of cherries and nice aftertaste. Another red had an earthy, farmy kind of smell, which Guillarme described as ‘hare’. He seemed slightly perturbed when I asked how they made it smell of rabbits, but when I tried it (the 2011 Patriminio), the delicious spicy taste caused me to drop the issue.

As well as CIVCORSE’s wines, I also got to sample a chocolatey red wine from Italian producers Bruno Giacosa and chat to a Languedoc producer whose family had been churning out Chardonnay from their chateaux since the 19^th Century. The workshops are definitely worth a look – I went to the not-so-modestly titled ‘Genius of Italy’ masterclass. Here a panel of producers and experts talked about the history of some Italian wines while we all drank them simultaneously.

Whether you’re a well-informed connoisseur or like me, you don’t know your oak barrel from your elbow, it’s a fun day out, where you get to not only try some out-of-the-ordinary European wines, but also chat to the people who make them. All the stallholders were lovely and approachable – a man from Bordeaux smiled politely as I described the smell of his white wine as ‘ale-like’ for want of a better word to describe its heavy nature.

If you want to catch it again next year, one thing I would suggest is taking a bottle of water with you as there were barely any soft drinks available – the only ones seemed to be the personal reserves of the stallholders. Although my dream of sipping Rioja among sharks in formaldehyde and portraits of Myra Hindley was not realised (the event was in a different room) it was a really enjoyable evening and a great opportunity to learn more about what you’re drinking.

The London Experience took place at:

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ
King’s Road
Chelsea
SW3 4RY

Tickets and information for future events can be found on the event website