Wine tasting
Wine tasting in Copenhagen
We run two kinds. Some we announce ourselves, and anyone can buy a seat. Others we put together for a group that has booked in .. a team of colleagues, a group of friends, a family. What they have in common is that they take about an hour, that there are five or six wines, and that nobody is quizzed on what they remember.
- About an hour, five or six wines
- Private tastings for 8 to 30 people
- Easiest Sunday to Tuesday, when the bar is closed
- No price list .. we put together a proposal, usually replying the same day
How the hour goes
It starts with everyone holding a glass before anybody has said anything. Then someone from the house takes the floor and says a short piece about the first wine: where it comes from, who made it, and why it is on our list at all. That takes two or three minutes, and then people drink and talk. It carries on like that through five or six wines, and the last one is usually poured an hour later.
There are no spittoons and no note sheets. We do not ask anyone to guess the grape, and nobody is put on the spot if they would rather not be. What you are very welcome to say is that a wine tastes odd .. that is usually where the best conversation starts, and now and then we agree.
The running order is built like an evening, not like a textbook. We start somewhere easy to like, take a detour past something that splits the table, and finish somewhere worth staying for. If one of the bottles really catches the group, we open another of it afterwards.
An opening, not the whole evening
The hour is deliberate. It is long enough to get somewhere and short enough that nobody starts checking the time. Afterwards the tasting does not end the evening .. it slides into an ordinary bar, where people order on from the list, sit where they like and stay as long as they want.
That is why we would rather place it early. Start at five or six and there is still a whole evening after it. Most groups stay a couple of hours longer, and a few tend to stay until we close.
The tastings we announce
Every so often we run a tasting anyone can buy a seat at. They go up on the events page and on Instagram, usually a couple of weeks ahead, and they usually fill. There is not room for many when everyone has to be able to hear what is being said.
We do not run them to a calendar but when there is a reason: a house we have just taken on, an importer passing through with something we could not have got hold of ourselves, or a grower who is in Copenhagen anyway. That means two months can pass between them, and other times there are two in three weeks. If there is none on the events page right now, it is not because we have stopped.
People come alone, as a couple or as four friends. It is not a private party and nobody needs to know anyone in advance .. most end up talking across the tables before the third wine anyway.
Private tastings for 8 to 30
If you are a group, we build the tasting around you. Eight is a good minimum .. fewer than that and it becomes a conversation at the bar rather than a tasting, which is fine, but then you should not be paying for one. Upwards we can go to around thirty before it gets hard to hear what is being said at the back of the room.
If there are more of you than that, we would rather do a short introduction to three wines and let the rest be an ordinary bar. That is more honest than pretending forty people can follow the same talk in a room our size.
What you need to tell us is how many you are, when, and what you want out of it. Some want to taste their way through one country. Others want to understand the difference between what they usually buy and what we have on the shelf. Others simply want an evening where somebody else chooses. All three are fine answers, and the last one is the most common.
What gets poured
We pick from our own list, which currently runs to 50 wines from 11 countries. 19 of them are already open by the glass, and for a tasting we often pull the other way: something that is not open day to day, because that is the bottle you would not have ordered yourself.
There is always something without alcohol in the running order if someone in the group is not drinking. Not sparkling water, but something worth putting out. Say so in advance and it will be ready.
The food can be on the tables throughout or come in afterwards. Most choose afterwards, because it is hard to taste a wine with a mouthful of cheese. A couple of bowls of olives and some bread along the way do no harm though, and then the tapas boards are ready once the last wine is poured.
What it costs
There is no price list, and that is not us being cagey. A tasting for eight on a Tuesday afternoon and one for twenty-five on a Friday with full tapas tables afterwards are different things. A fixed package price would either be too expensive for one or too thin for the other.
Write your numbers, the date and ideally what you were thinking of spending per head. A concrete proposal comes back with which wines are involved and what it lands at, usually the same day. You can accept or decline it, and nobody rings afterwards to sell you something bigger.
What we do not do
We do not run wine courses. There is no series over four Wednesdays, no certificates and no test at the end. If you want to learn to assess wine systematically, there are people in this city better at that than us, and we will happily say so.
We also have no projector, no screen and no separate room with a door to close. The tasting happens in the bar, and if we are open there are other guests at the other end. If you want the house to yourselves it has to fall Sunday to Tuesday .. and that is usually where the room is anyway.
And we do not promise anyone goes home wiser. It often happens, and it is nice when it does. What we can guarantee is an hour where something worth drinking gets poured, and where knowing nothing about wine is entirely fine.
How to ask
Write how many you are, when, and ideally what you were thinking of spending per head. We come back with a concrete proposal: which wines are involved, how long it takes and what it lands at. We usually reply the same day.
Questions we get
- What does a wine tasting in Copenhagen cost?
- Vesterhus at Istedgade 29 has no price list for tastings. The price depends on how many you are, which day it is, and whether there should be food afterwards. Write to reservations@vesterhus.dk with numbers, a date and ideally a budget per head, and a concrete proposal comes back, usually the same day.
- How long does a wine tasting take?
- About an hour. That is five or six wines with a couple of minutes of story for each. At Vesterhus the evening does not end there .. afterwards the tasting slides into an ordinary bar, where you order on from the list and stay as long as you like.
- How many people do we need for a private wine tasting?
- Eight is a good minimum, and Vesterhus can go up to around thirty. Fewer than eight and it becomes a conversation at the bar rather than a tasting. More than thirty and the people at the back cannot hear what is being said, so we would rather do a short introduction to three wines instead.
- Can you attend a wine tasting without being a group?
- Yes. Vesterhus regularly runs tastings anyone can buy a seat at. They are announced on vesterhus.dk/en/events and on Instagram, usually a couple of weeks ahead, and they tend to fill because the bar is small.
- How many wines do you taste?
- Five or six. They are chosen from the house's own list, and for a tasting we often reach for the bottles that are not open day to day. There is always something alcohol-free in the running order if someone in the group is not drinking.
- Which days can we hold a wine tasting?
- Easiest Sunday to Tuesday, when Vesterhus is closed anyway .. then you can have the house to yourselves. Wednesday to Saturday works too, but there will be other guests at the other end of the room, because the bar has no separate function room.
- Do you need to know anything about wine beforehand?
- No. There are no spittoons, no note sheets and nobody is asked to guess the grape. You are welcome to say a wine tastes odd, and now and then we agree.
- Do you run wine courses?
- No. Vesterhus does one-off tastings of about an hour, not a series over several evenings with a certificate at the end. If you want to learn to assess wine systematically, there are people in Copenhagen who are better at that.