Vinopolis offers self guided tours, letting you experience wine from all over the world. There’s also the opportunity to try Absinthe, Jagermeister, a specially prepared Bombay Sapphire cocktail and a variety of whiskeys and beers. If you’re sensible enough you can have a 20 minute wine tasting lesson too.
The amount of alcohol you’re allowed depends on how much money you’re willing to spend on a tour ticket. There’s the ‘Classic’ for £15, the ‘Explorer’ for £20 and the ‘Connoisseur’ for £25. We decided to try out the Explorer.
On arriving you get given a map, (which looks nothing like the inside - the inside is a maze), a series of wine tasting vouchers and a tick list for the other alcohol on offer. Ten minutes after arriving, my friend lost her alcoholic tick list - I was not about to share my list with her, so we had a hunt round and not only one, but two. All the more alcohol for us. No complaints yet.
The start of the tour is very much like a museum, which, lets be honest is not the reason people come here, so we did the obvious thing and skipped the educational bit. After trying a few wines from France and Italy (I do not advice Portuguese wine, it’s foul), we decided it was time for our Bombay Sapphire cocktail, which was the best drink all night.
After some Champagne and a handful of crackers, it was time for a lesson in wine tasting. We were taught about the “legs of wine” and how to circulate air around the wine in your mouth - all to improve the quality and taste. It didn’t really do anything for me to be honest. Maybe I was too drunk?
Paying £3 extra meant we could take part in the ‘Blind Wine Challenge’ - no blindfolds sadly, just covered wine bottles. After five different wines later and not a hope in hell of completing the challenge, we went to take advantage of the Absinthe. Unfortunately the Absinthe was watered down, tasting a lot like mouthwash. However, the Jagermeister was pure Jagermeister, and I can safely say it looked disgusting and tasted disgusting - I would drink Absinthe over Jagermeister any day.
The worst drink of the night was yet to come though. Whisky. They were very proud of their new ‘Still Room’ at Vinopolis - they shouldn’t be. The whisky smelt like a “turd covered in burnt hair” and tasted even worse. I completely blame the whisky for my hangover the following day (the Jagermeister probably contributed too).
Lastly, we finished the tour in the Vinopolis Brewery to claim our free beers. They were a variety of flavours apparently (beer tastes like beer to me), but anything was better than the whisky taste. We then stayed there for an expensive round of drinks, some free chips and a toilet stop. Then we ran off to Soho.
Overall, it was a good night, but not really worth the £23 we spent. More expensive than staying in with alcohol from a supermarket, but cheaper than a night out in London. Vinopolis wouldn’t do well in Leeds, it’s not cheap enough. It wasn’t aimed at students either, but I’d recommend it for a big group and for something a little different to do. It’s also wise to go on an empty stomach, or not if you don’t want to get drunk.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
Come here my tender nibble
Big Bunny is a large, pink bunny who lives in a forest just outside of Crusty Pines. He has 3 friends, who are small fat children he would like to eat.
Big Bunny is first discovered by the children after, Muffin, Lulu’s dog runs into the forest. “Do not run tasty children” says Big Bunny in his monotonous voice. He later tells them he has seen “no fluffy crunchy dogs”, but secretly puts Muffin into a bag.
Lulu and Sam are the naïve and stupider of the three, whereas Suzy has a little more sense about her. The three children visit Big Bunny regularly, each time he tells them all a short and usually slightly disturbing or pointless story.
The best story told (in my opinion), is in the Easter episode, Big Bunny tells the children his own version of the death of Jesus, but he replaces Jesus with a blue bird. It dies, but 3 days later it rises from the dead. All is the same, apart from the bird craves, instead of berries, flesh from the living (little girl’s eyeballs) and is a different shade of blue.
I enjoy Big Bunny’s obvious lying and his toneless voice, he is also quite pedantic and references everything to eating and food. Each animation ends with Big Bunny telling the children to eat food - egg yolks, ham burgers or lamb.
Amy Winfrey created this short series of animations in 2001. Peter Merryman is the voice of Big Bunny, and Amy Winfrey is the voices of the children. Big Bunny has been featured in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the World Animation Celebration (where once upon a time Hanna Barbera - creators of the Flintstones, won one of three Lifetime Achievement Awards).
Amy Winfrey has also created other animations, Making Fiends and Muffin Films. Initially I discovered Muffin Films (12 short animations about different muffin tales) and then followed a link to Big Bunny. I have recommended Big Bunny to a lot of people, but only got a positive response from people with a darker sense of humour. I would then recommend Muffin Films to them, Muffin Films is not as dark but a lot more random. I have only watched a few of Making Fiends, this is the darkest of the 3 animations created by Amy Winfrey.
It has been animations like this which have encouraged me to create my own. Sadly I have not developed the skills to use Flash yet, but I will get there! Currently I am experimenting with stop frame animation. I can still incorporate similar styles and characteristics as Amy Winfrey has.
If I were to recreate Big Bunny myself, I would probably try and spend more time with the background drawings and add some music maybe, which would not interfer with the voices. I would quite like to recreate Big Bunny using plasticine in my personal project thought. Having said this, I now know what a slow process animation is, and it can get very tedious and annoying, so I can sympathise with Amy Winfrey's faults. Overall thought, I think Big Bunny is great!
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
A Trouser Wobbling New Year
The Mancunian DJ, Mr Scruff, once again played a brilliant set for a total of 7 hours, with a fusion of jazz and break-beat which put smiles on everyone's faces.
The evening begins with a few brave/already wasted dancers giving it their best, watched over by a lone bearded man grinning out from behind his decks. He's surrounded by a set of video screens flashing up with the well known animations and messages saying "Wobble those legs!" encouraging people to dance.
At the back of the Forum, Kentish Town, London, the Mr. Scruff merchandise stall is set out, also selling tea and cakes. Everyone who drank tea this evening raised £531.87 for Breast Cancer Care.
As the night continued, the music smoothly changed from soul and funk to dub, ska and reggae. When the new year was upon us all, Mr Scruff welcomed it in with the Countdown theme tune. Everyone became keen to show off their unique dance moves, and the dance floor was overflowing. People danced everywhere from upstairs in the seating area, to the bar, foyer and toilets.
The music swayed gently from old reggae to new funk to old skool hip-hop, and the crowd lapped up every drop. Not all songs are well known, but you can dance to anything when Mr Scruff works his magic.
The evening came to an end at the early hours of 4am, however the Forum was still packed and Mr Scruff could have continued his set for another 2 hours or so!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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