The Glug: Laithwaites Wine Tasting

Wine criticism, you must understand, is a serious business. When faced with more than 150 different wines to review in just two hours, you can either pick carefully or drink quickly. It takes a skilled pro to manage both and still make any sense by the end. Something the newest member of our team, Matt Huckle, was soon to learn.

In the name of education, we headed to the annual Laithwaites tasting at Altitude, Millbank Tower’s 29th-floor event space. Hosting a tasting in such an impressive venue – with a view that’s only matched by that at the Gherkin – is a bit of a cheat, really; before you’ve even tasted your first drop it’s already a heady experience.

But we were not to be distracted (serious business, remember). Blinkers on, we headed straight to the tasting tables. It was an inauspicious start for the young Jedi. According to him, the punchy Gran Vale de Niebla Gewürztraminer 2010 (£7.99) tasted... “of grapes”. (Twat.)

Things soon looked up, though, as a Peter Lehmann riesling (£16.99) was applauded for a “more even construction”. La Grace de Condrieu 2008 (£27) was considered “complex” with “a lot going on”. And a fantastic Felton Road pinot (£24) was praised for its “velvet texture”.

In fact, by the time we left, I swear that he could have passed for a veteran. Either that, or it was just the drink talking…  

0845 194 7720; laithwaites.co.uk