What it's like inside Tesco's new wine bar in London

When I drink wine, it's usually from a glass I ordered with dinner or a cheap bottle I picked up at the supermarket. And I never swirl the drink around first, or stick my nose in the glass to get a whiff of the wine's flavours and notes.

But that's exactly what I'm doing at the Tesco finest* wine bar - a new pop-up bar in Soho, London, where customers can sample 48 of the finest* brand wines sold by the supermarket.

Prices start at £3 for a glass, while flights of three different wines cost £7 each. Experts are also available to recommend different red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines to patrons.

The bar itself doesn't sell whole bottles for licensing reasons, but there are three Tesco stores nearby where customers can buy bottles of the wines they liked. As they leave, patrons are given leaflets with information on the wines they've tried, along with a voucher for £3 off a £10 bottle.

"Customers generally have a repertoire of four or five different wines," Nick Jackman, Head of Tesco finest* told Business Insider. "What we're trying to do here is take the wines out of our supermarket aisles and give people the opportunity to try something new."

The wine bar

The space feels more like an exhibition room than a wine bar, housed inside a closed art gallery on Wardour Street. Displays of wine bottles are stuck onto blackboards with their names written in chalk next to them.

The decor is modern, furnished with leather sofas and high tables with bar stools, the kind of non-offensive, basic furniture you could buy from a Tesco.

The tasting

For the tasting, I'm introduced to wine expert Jimmy Smith, who runs the West London Wine School. He's dressed in a bow tie and waistcoat that's decorated with badges, which he calls "postcards" from his travels.

Before sampling the wine, Smith gives me a quick primer on what gives different types of wines their distinct flavour.

"Wines have a huge amount of difference," Smith said. "Both natural factors and human factors go into making wine," he said. That includes where it's grown, the climate, the grape variety (there are nearly 3,000 grape varieties in the world), and the winemaker's passion.

I start with a flight of reds: a Rioja Reserva, 2011; Chilean Merlot, 2015; and Argentinian Malbec, 2015, served on a wooden palette with numbers underneath each glass so you can identify which wine you are drinking.

Along with the wine, a waitress brings a small plate of crackers, Comté and Stilton cheese, grapes, and olives. These foods complement different wines, while the high fat content in the cheese balances the flavours, Smith said.

At Smith's instruction, I pick up the Rioja and circle the glass in my hand to swirl the wine around. This "enables the flavours to come out to the top of the glass," he said.

Then, I stick my nose into the glass and inhale deeply. The Rioja has a woody yet fruity aroma, with hints of berries. Smith said he could smell strawberry, but I got more of a blackberry scent. The oaky, wood flavour is a result of the winemaking process, as it was aged in wooden barrels.

I've never bothered sniffing wine before, but I find it's a clever way to figure out if you're actually going to like a wine before you drink it.

Finally, I get to drink the wine. "Slurp as much as you can," Smith said, as I take my first sip.

The taste is smooth, rich, and aromatic. The wine warms my throat the more I drink. It's the kind of wine I typically like, and it is the only one I completely finish. Conscious that I'm returning to the office after, though, I think better of downing them all.

Next, the Chilean Merlot. This one is pleasant enough but slightly more acidic, with more alcohol - sniffing for too long makes my head fuzzy. It also has a thinner texture, a bit like nail polish remover.

Onto the Malbec, it is a spicy wine that reminds me of Christmas, with hints of cloves and cinnamon. I would drink this in December, but it feels weird having this in August.

The second and final set of wines I try is the "If you only try three" flight, designed for bargoers in a hurry with a selection of white, rosé, and red wines.

Though I'm not a fan of white wine, even in the summer, the first wine - a Tingleup Riesling, 2015 - has a light, flowery taste. I surprise myself with this one, thinking I could enjoy a full glass on a hot day.

Next, I try a Provence Rosé, 2015. It looks like the kind of rosé I prefer, with a pale blush colour that's not too pink, but it's too sweet for me, with a sugary, crisp flavour.

For the last glass, I sample a Barolo, 2012. This Italian red wine has a smooth, even texture, and full-bodied, robust flavour. Like the Rioja, I could have easily polished off the entire glass.

The verdict

Aside from feeling slightly lightheaded (a result of mixing my wines), I leave the bar with more of a sense of the wines I do and don't like. While red wines are still my favourite, I am open to trying more white wine as well.

Jackman said I'm the ideal customer for the wine bar because of my lack of wine knowledge. The bar isn't really designed for wine connoisseurs. It's for people who don't know a lot about the wine they drink, but simply enjoy drinking it.

While there's been "lots of interest" in making the wine bar permanent, he said the brand will wait until the pop-up closes to see how the public receives it, and may experiment with similar projects in the future.

If it were a permanent establishment, I would go for a drink. Sure, it's not a fancy bar, but it has quality, cheap wine, and the flights for £7 are a great deal compared to the usual £10/glass you'd find in most London bars.

Drinking supermarket wine outside of my flat, served in nicer wine glasses than my own, definitely upgrades the experience.