Restaurants

From £3 to £25 a sample...

The Sampler opened last December, founded by partners Jamie Hutchinson and Dawn Marris. Hutchinson’s background is in venture capital and private equity, while Marris was a producer of television documentaries. For both, wine was a passion that was indulged as a hobby, until setting up The Sampler became a reality. The wine list took them two years to research, visiting wineries and building up contacts with their chosen producers.

Hutchinson and Marris saw the Enomatic dispensing machines while checking out Italy’s Chianti Classico region. The opened bottles of wine are kept fresh by replacing the air in the vending machines with inert gas nitrogen. Keep the wines away from oxygen, and you prevent their oxidation and eventual spoilage.

Similar machines are used in restaurants with extensive by-the-glass lists or in professional tasting rooms in some wine-producing areas. The Sampler is the first in the UK to offer the smart card set-up, allowing customers a kind of self-serve, free-range tasting experience. ‘We like the idea of letting people experiment for themselves,’ says Hutchinson. ‘They can use the cards and serve the wines on their own, or they can ask us for help if they want to.’ Feature continues

...also available by the case

The Sampler’s combination of tasting room and retail space is possible only following the Licensing Act 2003. The Act did away with the strict distinction between an ‘on-licence’ (a restaurant or pub, for example) and an ‘off-licence’ selling alcohol for consumption away from the premises only, allowing holders of ‘premises licences’ to sell alcohol for consumption both on and off the site.

Part of the fun of the place is that even the rankest of amateurs can cast themselves in the role of professional wine taster. On my visit, there were a couple of people scribbling notes as they tasted and a cyclist who came in looking for a bottle of ‘something gluggable’. Hutchinson says, ‘There are so many stuffy wine shops in London.

We wanted to give people a wide variety. People don’t worry about not knowing enough when they come in here.’

The Sampler, 266 Upper St, N1 2UQ (020 7226 9500/www.thesampler.co.uk ) Highbury & Islington tube/rail. Open Mon-Sat 11.30am-9pm, Sun 1-8pm. The Sampler also offers tutored tasting evenings as well as a six-week Fine Wine Course, taught by specialist staff.