Bottega Botlé — Restaurant in Bologna

We’ve been to a LOT of wine tastings. Though this one may appeal to some folks, we found it too removed from traditional tastings to be very useful or enjoyable to those looking for a serious wine tasting experience.

This place was loud and too bustling to clearly hear the host or others in your party - much less conduct a thoughtful evaluation of a given wine.

The place is overly driven by technology. Though climate controlled wine dispensers have become fairly common, the addition of dozens of computer tablets has gone overboard. Rather than tasting and discussing a wine with a person, you’re going head to head with a program. What YOU see, smell or taste in a wine has been replaced with what someone else’s opinion - programmed into a computer program - is “right” and YOUR impressions of a wine’s qualities is “wrong” - and needs to be corrected. 1984 anyone? Clockwork Orange?

Though the food pairings might have been thoughtful, the noise level in the place made it near impossible to hear what was being said.

While some people were trying to be part of a wine tasting and food pairing learning experience, others - who had finished their scheduled tasting - remained and freely dove into to the tasting samples like hovering vultures. (Completely ignoring the toothpicks and diving into cheese trays with grasping fingers.)

Finally - this establishment has no bathroom(!) It “shares” a one-holer bathroom with the busy restaurant next store. This makes for an uneasy and cramped wait for your turn in line at the shared toilet.

Though the staff if friendly and helpful, this experience is more a raucous cocktail party than a place to seriously taste wine. If that dynamic fits your mission, more power to you, but we...

I booked this after being impressed with the 5 star reviews online and they are all 100% correct!

Me and my Fiancé arrived at 2:30pm and was greeted by Danilo who set up our tasting. We were the only ones booked in at this time, so we had a private experience!

We tried 3 wines, one white and 2 red. Danilo laid out bread, cheese, jams... including truffle and mortadella pastes. All of which were lovely. We went through every wine, pairing the foods and seeing how the flavour of the wine changes and it was incredible! It was so amazing to learn about the wines and how important it is to pair them with complimentary wines.

We were then introduced to the sommelier game which was a lot of fun! Being able to look, smell and taste the wine and then answer questions to get a score was really fun and different!

Danilo made us feel so welcome and his knowledge is something else.

We then topped up a card and tried more of the wines which were all lovely. We could learn about them on the tablet and what else they had to offer.

We bought some of the truffle paste along with the rosemary salt (which is gorgeous!)

We were also given a complimentary magnet each with the beautiful images that are covering the interior of the store.

Please book if you are looking for a 5 star service of wine tasting which is not only about learning of the wine, but by being involved in a fun...

It was actually a really good experience, really enjoy the concept. I had no idea how to taste or appreciate wine. However after my experience here I am starting to understand what it's about.

To start you arrive and they give you a glass and give you a card that you must top (can be any amount). Once you have these you are good to go to select wines to try. There is a fairly good selection (around 12 or so) of different varieties to try. Once selected your wine is automatically dispensed and ready for you to try. The unique twist that's provided here is that there are screens which you can log on and play and wine tasting game which teaches you how to taste the wine. This part was super enjoyable and unique.

Overall we had so much fun at a good price and a good opportunity to try some wine tasting and learn something. The only hiccup was when we were leaving and wanted to get the money back from the card. The two guys who were working there said "It's only 20 cent" and kind of looked at us without taking any action. Granted 20 cent is not a great amount to take back, but it is still my money, and didn't appreciate the pressure. I don't mind them keeping the money, just felt strange having to push to get my...