Half an hour's fun at The Sampler

On Saturday I finally got to The Sampler, London’s most talked about new wine shop which turns out to be less than 10 minutes walk from my son’s Islington pub, The Marquess Tavern, our new base in London. The buzz is all about the fact that it has 80 bottles open at any one time, including some seriously expensive wines.

The way it works is that you buy a card and insert it into the dispenser then pour a 25ml, 50ml or 75ml sample into your glass. The price depends on the cost of the bottle. For example a it cost 65p to taste a £14.99 bottle of 2004 Domaine L’Hortus Pic St Loup while a £59.99 bottle of Comte Armand Clos des Epeneaux Pommard 2002 will set you back £2.51.

The beauty of the arrangement of course is that you can try before you buy thus discovering that a 1998 Prieuré St Jean de Bebian, for example, is tasting rather lacklustre while a dark, scented 1995 Chateau Montus Madiran XL from Alain Brumont is drinking quite beautifully. It’s also a great opportunity to extend your knowledge of, say, Bordeaux without having to open several expensive bottles.

The only downside, is that I suspect some wines may be hanging around rather longer than is good for them. I didn’t try it but can’t believe that a 1953 Chateau Talbot is going to benefit from being left open for more than a couple of hours.

The shop also has a fortnightly tasting including ones on matching food and wine, one of which is taking place tomorrow evening (19th). Well worth a visit if you’re in this part of town.