The Rhone Touch - an interactive wine exhibition by students from London College of Communication, UAL

So I read in 'Good Things' Magazine, that Rhone Wines had partnered up with students from London College of Communication to create an interactive wine exhibition at the Platform Theatre at Central Saint Martins.

I immediately thought that was something I had to visit, so I went a couple of times last week with fellow wine lovers and it was an enjoyable time, with some really interesting exhibits created by the students.

My favourite was the grape stomping installation, where we got to stomp silicon grapes. The feel of them was amazing on the balls of your feet, like mini massage balls. The colour of the 'grapes' got darker as you stomped on them, then as the 'juice' was pressed, they went back to being clear:

An exhibit called 'Degorgement' was a wine bottle sound installation that played the sound of a cork opening when you covered the bottles with your hand. This wasn't working on my first visit, but I was really pleased it was working on my return. Have a look here:

There was another exhibit in the bar area called 'The Author's Friend' where you could hit a key on the keyboard of a traditional typewriter (where the letters had been replaced by symbols) and a word would appear on the screen. If you were patient you would then get a quote, lyric, or poem about that part of the wine sensation.

It was really clever, but the delay from initial word to quote meant we hit about 16 keys before we realised we were missing the quotes! Patience is needed in wine making, (and visiting an exhibition about wine it would seem...)

E-Bouquet - an electronic sommelier

Red - an abstract decanting experience

The pop up bar also had some lovely reds from the AC's of Cote Rotie and Crozes Hermitage. A fabulous red on the Tuesday was alas missing on the Saturday, but reaffirmed my love of the Northern Rhone.

Syrah you absolutely rock as a grape and I salute you!!!

You can read more about the exhibition here: Wined and Designed - Press Release from UAL