FAQs

You’ll need enough space to host your guests, and space in your fridge to store the chilled wine. We recommend that water is available for you and your guests throughout the event.

We provide the glasses for your tasting, which are for you and your guests to keep.

The drinks and glasses can either be delivered to your home, or you can collect them from a Waitrose branch, at the best time for you.

Someone aged over 18 years old will need to be home to take the delivery. We may need to ask for proof of age.

Yes, the expert will arrive 30 minutes prior to the event to help set up. They will bring a spittoon, corkscrews and any other equipment needed with them.

You don’t, but if parking is particularly difficult, please let us know so we can inform your specialist.

Any remaining drinks will be left with you to enjoy.

Our experiences are designed for 6 or more people.

We can cater for this. However, please note that typically the minimum price for an experience, regardless of whether it’s for less than 6 people, is £210.

Wine Tasting at Home is a social evening that you can enjoy in a relaxed environment. Our expert will contact you before the event and you can discuss how you would like the evening to be run. For example, the specialist will ask what the knowledge level of wine is like amongst your guests and can steer the event accordingly.

The experience lasts for 2 hours with a small break halfway. This allows for a gentle pace and your guests to ask any questions that they may have. Your Wine Specialist will arrive 30 minutes before the start, to help you with the set-up (more detail above under ‘The Set-up’)

The event is all about tasting different types of drinks. It’s not necessary to consume them. A spittoon will be provided for anyone that may prefer to just have a taste.

All of our wine specialists are WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) Level 2 qualified as a minimum. A WSET qualification is the most recognised qualification in the industry.

We serve the majority of the UK. However, tastings are not available in Northern Ireland. Let us know your location in your booking enquiry and if we can’t source a specialist in your area, you will be able to join our virtual experience.

We can provide this experience in any location suitable for carrying out a tasting, such as a social club or your place of work. We can discuss the suitability of a location with you during the booking process.

The cost is per person drinking wine. We don’t charge for anyone who chooses to come and not drink, but there will only be enough drinks provided for the number of attendees choosing to participate in the drinks tasting.

During the experience, your chosen location is the Wine Specialist’s place of work and therefore smoking or vaping is not permitted.

All standard wine experiences involve tasting 6 different wines. If you want to taste more wines you can by choosing a bespoke package. Our gin experience contains 5 different gins.

Yes, each guest will be given a copy of the tasting notes and a pen.

All drinks are available online at waitrosecellar.com, and our specialists will be able to help answer any of your queries.

Yes – it’s a great way to share this experience with your friends and loved ones

You can purchase a wine tasting gift certificate for anyone over 18 years old, by visiting https://waitrosewinetasting.com/gift

If you are looking to purchase a gift for over 6 attendees, please get in touch by emailing tastings@waitrosecellar.com

Each certificate has a unique code and expiry date. The recipient must follow the terms and conditions stated on their unique certificate.

All payment will be taken over the phone. We accept the following payments: Partnership Card, Mastercard, Visa, Maestro and American Express.

We do ask for a £100 deposit or the full payment to secure your chosen date. If applicable the remaining balance (and full details) will need to be paid two weeks before the tasting. 

When purchasing a wine tasting event as a gift we’ll take full payment at the time of purchase. The gift certificate will have a unique code and you should follow the dates supplied on the voucher when booking. The gift voucher can however be refunded within 6 months from the date of purchase.

If you decide to cancel up to 7 working days before the event any money you’ve given to us will be fully refunded. If you need to cancel less than 7 working days before the event, your £100 deposit is non-refundable, but can be used to book an alternative date if you wish. In this instance, any further balance you have paid us will be refunded.

We’ll try our best to accommodate your request to reschedule, but may not be able to guarantee availability.

In the highly unlikely event of us not being able to host your party due to an unforeseen circumstance, your drinks will still arrive for you to enjoy, and a full refund will be issued to you or we’ll organise an alternative date.

If there is anything else you need to know that hasn’t been answered in the FAQs, please contact us at tastings@waitrosecellar.com and one of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.

A Waitrose Partner will get back to you within 2 working days after you’ve made an enquiry. They'll confirm the date and time of your experience, and will also require a £100 deposit to secure your booking. The remainder of the cost and final guest numbers will need to be given 2 weeks before your experience. A Waitrose Partner will also discuss how the wine and glasses can be delivered to you, or collected from a Waitrose branch before your tasting starts.

Your drinks specialist will arrive 30 minutes before the event, or welcome you into the virtual room via Zoom. The experience itself will take 2 hours.

Each tasting includes six wines. All wines are chosen by our Waitrose Partner Xenia Irwin, unless you make a bespoke booking, where recommendations will be made based on your preferences.

In our gin tasting experience, we’ll take you through the history of gin accompanied by five different gins. You’ll have the chance to be an active participant, as we teach you how to blend the perfect botanicals, match the gins with Fever-Tree tonics, and make a classic G&T. This experience also comes with tonics and a free glass to keep.

Our drinks specialist can advise on nibbles and food pairings ahead of the Experience.

Yes - tastings can be created for groups of 10 or more for corporate events, and can be run either in the day or evening. Whether it’s a corporate event with clients, or a team building experience, we can help find you strike the right note.