Venetia Thompson

Eat, drink and play bingo. Red or white?

Venetia Thompson takes refuge from austerity Britain in a night of wine bingo: a fast-growing game that combines the spirit of the Mecca Ballroom with the palate of the vintner

Bingo is a game that I have never really seen the point of — despite recent advertising campaigns attempting to market it as the new raucous ‘girls’ night out’ of choice. It was thus with trepidation that I climbed Home House’s grand staircase and entered one of their private rooms along with 30 other guests for a game of wine bingo. I was swiftly handed a glass of something light and fizzy, thankfully, and all images of fat, single, middle-aged Gala-dwelling women and their legs-11 disappeared. It was only when I reached for what from a distance looked like a macadamia nut in a round basket, but was in fact a bingo ball, that I remembered that I was there to play a game, and that I probably needed glasses.

Wine bingo was devised by the London club’s head sommelier Nicolas Pierron two years ago, and is now a bi-monthly sell-out event with a cult following. Some guests have even been known to bring spreadsheets and wine study-guides to maximise their chances of winning the many bottles of wine on offer. However, the grand prize, which on this occasion was a magnum of Château le Prieure, Pomerol 2002, could only be won by getting a ‘full house’ — and that would be left reassuringly down to chance and who could shout ‘Bingo!’ the fastest.

Wine bingo regulars aside, many guests are just here for a fun evening trying wines that they would perhaps normally avoid, and to test their blind-tasting capabilities. The rules made more sense after a few glasses of wine. Each guest is given a bingo card; Nicolas then commences the game by calling out numbers which are struck off in the usual bingo fashion. All fairly straightforward so far.

Then he will call out the immortal words, ‘This is for a wine tasting’, at which point everyone braces themselves, and if you’re lucky enough to have the next number called, you win a bottle of wine and, more importantly, the secret details and identity of the wine everyone else then has to taste blindly.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in