DUNDEE, Scotland -- Tourist alert! Scotland's first food and wine center is now open.
The Tasting Rooms, as the center is called, was created by Scott's Wine World, a Dundee wine importer.
The center is international in scope, offering virtual wine tours, a deli, café, wine trading floor, corporate conference facilities and an art gallery. Director Graeme Scott said inspiration for the project came from visits to the wine warehouses of Australia and Hong Kong.
"There's a lot of investment here at the moment and the timing is just right," Scott said, explaining why Dundee (seen above) was selected as the initial Scottish site.
Events planned for The Tasting Rooms include specialized dinners pitched at the corporate market and featuring wine producers and celebrity chefs.
The complex blends the historical and traditional jute building with a rustic wine warehouse where people can wander, buy, relax, eat and learn.
“There’s nothing like this in the UK and there’s definitely nothing like it in Scotland,” Scott said. “We want to take the snobbery out of wine and make it more accessible. I experienced this when I was living abroad where it was all about tasting wine in a relaxed environment and in a more tactile way, and I wanted to bring that to the UK.”
Visitors to the Tasting Rooms can access virtual tours of vineyards around the world as well as tastings of the produce of some of those wineries from Italy, Spain, France, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Food is provided mostly by Scottish suppliers for the on-site deli counter and mezzanine café that overlooks the wine trading floor.
Scott, born and raised in Dundee, says of the city, “There’s a lot of investment here at the moment and the timing is just right. Currently our main focus is Dundee, but if it’s successful we have not ruled out similar concepts in other cities.”
ON THE WEB
• Scotland.com
• BBC Scotland Travel Guide
• Bus & Coach Travel
• Scotland's Golf Courses
• Scottish Tourist Board
• The Clans of Scotland
• Scottish History & Culture
• Distillery tours, tastings, information
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