London

Kathryn Miller

Wine lovers’ dating
Kathryn Miller at Flame Bar

As a concept, wine tasting dating has obvious appeal. At Grape Vine Social’s Friday night events the idea is simple: six wines to taste, six men to meet. There are 50 of us assembled in Flame Bar (actually the VIP area of Infernos in Clapham, which sets off alarm bells). I scan the room (more upmarket than I imagined), assessing the talent. The datees are mostly twenty- to thirtysomething professionals. I order a G&T for a bit of Dutch courage and turn to a conservatively dressed guy at the bar. He tells me he’s a City lawyer who, like me, is on his own. We’re soon joined by a suited self-employed business consultant from Maida Vale. It’s not exactly swept-off-your-feet stuff.

For the dating, girls are assigned a table, and boys move along three places to their right after each glass of wine. The wines we will taste are all from Chapel Down vineyard in Kent. I’m sitting next to Lucy, a vivacious blonde who has come along with a male friend. We compare battle plans. ‘I’m going to ask mine what they keep in their fridges,’ she giggles. My fears of collapsing in a drunken heap having drunk six glasses of wine disappear when I see date Number One approaching with two reassuringly small samples. Identifying which wine we’re drinking from a list of 11 ‘possibles’ proves harder than anticipated, but is an effective ice-breaker. We are surprised at the high quality of English wine and record our tasting notes on score cards, which are also used to score each date and note whether we’d like to exchange email addresses. Feature continues

Kathryn judges potential suitors

Date Number Two, a good-looking Scot, arrives. ‘I’m a bit nervous and haven’t been to anything like this before,’ he confesses. The wine works its magic and we chatter away like old friends. Number Three – a public school type, early thirties, wearing Ralph Lauren – bounds up, but his fixation with the pole-dancing pole next to my table gets the better of him. We submit him to a spot of flirty teasing before he moves on.
By the time I meet Number Five I’m feeling a bit boozy. ‘I spend most of my evenings in the pub with mates,’ he confesses, interestingly (not), ‘and I think I’m forgetting how to talk to women. I like it here – I’d come again as there are a lot of classy ladies.’ By this stage, I am forgetting to rate the wine, but Lucy and I compare tasting notes – along with details of the men we’ve met. Finally Number Six, a slightly eccentric Frenchman who entertains us with a humorous (or so he thinks) pole dance.

The formal bit ends, and the person who has correctly identified all the wines wins a bottle of Chapel Down. Then we’re free to go into Infernos or stay in the bar. Purely for research purposes, I join a few others on the heaving dancefloor. It’s reminiscent of my university student union but proves to be an entertaining end to an enjoyable night. So, have I been on any dates? Well, that would be telling!

Visit www.grapevinesocial.com for information.