I can think of hundreds of people who'd enjoy a visit to Vinopolis, the new "City of Wine" on London's South Bank.
Architects and designers should go and see how a couple of derelict railway arches have been transformed into a soaring modern building. Business journalists could track down Duncan Vaughan-Arbuckle, the founder and director, for a feature on entrepreneurial doggedness. Foodies should definitely give the restaurants a try. Wine lovers in the first flush of infatuation might like the Wine Odyssey, too. In fact, if we didn't live a plane ride away, I'd be tempted to buy a season ticket, hoping to lure my long-suffering family into a better understanding of the grape and hence a higher tolerance for my frequently demented vinobabble. But wine buffs? Probably not.
"It's not designed with experts in mind," says Vaughan-Arbuckle. "It's for people who buy their wine in the supermarket - people who want to expand their knowledge a little and have a bit of fun. An American newspaper described it as beginner-friendly, and I think that's a great description."
Hmmm. I hesitate to knock Vinopolis, because it's brave and shiny and well-intentioned. But, just as car museums tend to appeal to motor maniacs, and bird sanctuaries to ornithologists, I think it's reasonable to expect a wine attraction to appeal to wine enthusiasts. Confirmed oenophiles as well as beginners. "For anyone and everyone who enjoys wine," it says on the snazzy leaflet. But anyone who knows a reasonable amount may feel slightly let down.
In each of the spaces that represent the world's wine regions, couldn't there be just one exhibit to intrigue and inform dedicated winos? "Great idea! I'll start working on that right away!" said Duncan Vaughan-Arbuckle - a touching but odd response to a pretty obvious suggestion. Still, here is a man who has had to confront so many obstacles over the past 12 years to realise his dream that it's a miracle Vinopolis has happened at all.
Previously in the wine trade, he conceived the idea for a "world of wine" leisure development because of two things - his customers' fascination for the stories behind the wines he stocked, and the runaway sales of Hugh Johnson's World Atlas of Wine (now over 3 million copies). Within a couple of years, he had sold his business and used the proceeds to get his ambitious scheme off the ground. "Everybody said it wouldn't work but I was determined. There's a bit of Irish blood in me and Irish pigheadedness drove me on. I gambled everything." Eventually, with 500 private investors - Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent and Claude Taittinger among the handful of well-known wine names - and £23 million, Vinopolis emerged, looking better than he'd ever dared to hope.
It's not quite finished yet. Still to come are a gallery housing the vast modern art collection of Swiss millionaire and Californian winery owner Donald Hess, along with another restaurant and wine bar. Improvements are planned for some areas of the Wine Odyssey. Champagne lacks sparkle. Northern Europe is - well, dull. Even so, Vaughan-Arbuckle reports that 85 per cent of visitors' questionnaires rate Vinopolis very good or excellent.
Even for a fumbling technophobe like me, the audio guide (included in the admission price) is idiot-proof. As you pass along the wine trail, it automatically delivers a brief introduction to each region - by Jancis Robinson, Hugh Johnson, Oz Clarke and other wine stars. More specific information on individual exhibits is easily obtained if you simply linger and key in their number. Voila.
The cleverest sections - so far, at least - are Italy, where you can sit on a Vespa and go on a Tuscan wine tour via a windscreen video, and Australia, fashioned like the inside of an aircraft to suggest flying winemakers and flying doctors. In various areas along the tour route - Bordeaux, Italy, Iberia, North America, South America - wines are set out for tasting, since visitors are entitled to five free samples. Although it isn't difficult to find five worthwhile bottles among the total of 200, the overall selection could be more exciting - a point which the wine selection panel, headed by Stephen Spurrier, might address. Too many big brands, too many obvious choices - even for wine beginners.
This matters - not so much at the tasting tables as in the restaurants of Cantina Vinopolis, where all 200 wines are available both by the bottle (£10.45-£66.95stg) and by the glass (£2.10-£13.40stg). You'd exhaust yourself, just wading through the sea of unremarkable Chardonnays on the first three pages of the list. But plough on, because there are interesting wines sprinkled through the later bits. And the food is so good, in this lofty, brick-lined space, that City types are beginning to flock in for lunch. Tasty light dishes in the casual Refectory; slightly more ambitious cooking in the Brasserie where, I have to tell you , the seared blue fin tuna on its zingy salad of green beans, plum tomato, rocket and reggiano is a treat.
Vinopolis City of Wine, 1 Bank End, London SE1 9BU, tel 0044 171-9408300. Open daily from 10 a.m.; last admission 5.30 p.m. Adults £10. Cantina Vinopolis is open for lunch and dinner, tel 0044 1719408333. Nearest tube station London Bridge: take the Southwark St exit.
Vinopolis City of Wine can be contacted at www.evinopolis.com