If you follow me on instagram (https://instagram.com/xjennaloulou)  then you will have seen that a few weeks ago I went wine tasting (again!).

Dan has been working so hard lately and I just wanted a cute little date night that we could do on a weekday to relax & unwind during another stressful week.

Up stepped the most awarded Wine Merchant in Birmingham. Located in the Great Western Arcade, Loki Wine was the perfect venue for a lovely, relaxed evening of wine tasting.

If you head over to their website here, you will see the current events that they have coming up.

We attended the Rioja masterclass which was on Wednesday 28 October 2015 & started at 6pm.

We headed over to Birmingham & grabbed a coffee & then wandered over to Loki around 6pm.

We were taken upstairs to the tasting room where we were greeted by Rioja goody bags.

On the table was water and spittoons but we were encouraged to taste the wine & swallow if we so wished, which of course we did!

We also had a slice of chorizo & some delightful manchego  cheese to pair with the wines.  Loki also sell meat & cheese platters & all food is sourced from the local, traditional delicatessen which is fantastic for local, independent businesses.

A pen was provided to us if we wished to make notes of the wines that we tasted etc.

The experience was led by Paul who was so educated in wine that me & Dan felt like we could have listed to him all day!

There was around 18 people on the tasting, which was a lovely number; just intimate enough but also a nice number to interact with.

We tasted 6 wines in total (including one white Rioja and one rosé Rioja).  We then tasted a range of Rioja’s varying in price.

Every wine we tried was available to buy in the store on the lower ground.

You can also come in, order some food, buy a tasting card starting at £10.00 & work your way around the wines.

This is a fantastic idea if you’ve been wondering about a certain wine, but you don’t necessarily want to purchase a whole bottle just in case it’s not for you!

Our wine tasting evening finished on Paul opening a bottle of 1970 Rioja which was a real experience!

To drink something that’s nearly twice my age was wonderful & would make a great talking point at a dinner party!

After the tasting had finished I took a look around Loki & was impressed with how relaxed it was.  There was a lovely room where you could bring your wine & have a natter after work or have a glass of wine after a morning of retail therapy.

We were also encouraged to browse the store before it closed around 8pm, which we took full advantage of!