So what is Wine Unpacked?
Essentially, it's a wine course that you can take from home. You get different wines to taste each month and a video tasting/tutorial to go alongside. Each month's selection is crammed into a box that will fit through a standard letterbox, so you can have it delivered anywhere. We were given the chance to try it out.
How does it work?
Each month, you'll be sent six miniature bottles with six different wines, split into two types. For example, the month we tried it was a mix of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. You'll also get a tasting card which will help you identify the types of flavour you're going to attempt to discern in the wines and this will get more detailed as you build up your knowledge. Then just get the video up on Youtube and drink along. The whole thing takes an hour (but you can pause if it's going along too quickly).
What's the experience like?
Enjoyable and surprisingly informative. Led by Holly Willcocks, an engaging host whose day job is assistant head sommelier at Noble Rot, there's a really good balance between tasting the actual wines and understanding more about the larger wine-tasting techniques as you go along. We discovered a fair chunk of info that we didn't know during the hour-long session. There's also a strong focus that the experience is to help you find out what kind of wine you really enjoy. So if you sometimes get lost in a wine list or a wine shop - all the info you learned her should help point you in the right direction.
Generally speaking, it's extremely easy to take in. Personally, we can have very short attention spans at times but this easily held out attention (the wine certainly helped). Plus, it very much helps that the wines that you're tasting are well chosen - it all makes for an enjoyable experience and you just happen to learn something along the way.
Overall thoughts?
We weren't sure what to expect from Wine Unpacked but it's definitely left us wanting more. We've tasted some great wines, we've learned a lot more about winemaking and wine tasting in general. If you've ever thought about taking a WSET course, we think this would be a good stepping stone to that. But It's as useful if you just wanted to know a little more about wine, so that you can simply improve your experience with a wine list and enjoy wine more overall.
More about Wine Unpacked
Delivery range: Nationwide
How much? £29.99 a month
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @wineunpacked.
Hot Dinners received a box of WIne Unpacked as a gift.
Subscribe to be the first to get the news from Hot Dinners
