According to a recent tweet, ‘wine is the ultimate blind purchase; you can't even look at it properly until you've cracked open the bottle’. Six years ago I would have agreed, but not any longer. It was in 2007 that I first slotted my wine smart card into a bright, shiny and new enomatic machine at The Sampler in Islington’s Upper Street. Into my glass gurgled 25 centilitres of nectar, and then another, and another.

Just last month Fulham’s Vagabond Wines, whose entire offering is dispensed from enomatic machines on the try-before-you-buy principle, announced the launch of a second shop in Charlotte Street in October. MD Stephen Finch said that the new store will ‘press home its advantage of tastings, with cheese and charcuterie platters matched to the wines and an offer of wines from obscure wine regions around the world’.

The Tokyo-inspired enomatic has been a device waiting to happen quite simply because the best way to sell wine is on how it tastes. For independent wine merchants it’s a godsend, allowing them flexibility and dynamism. Tom Jones, owner of the Whalley Wine Shop in Lancashire says: ‘our innovative by-the-glass system allows us to taste and monitor our range more frequently, letting us link what regions we want to highlight with what is available to taste in store and on offer.’

The Sampler has since gone on to open bigger and better premises in South Kensington. As co-owner Jamie Hutchinson says, ‘It’s easy to buy a large selection of famous wines or well known brands, but it seems unlikely that they can provide value or even frankly much interest. We believe our success lies in letting the customer find what thrills them rather than pushing them in that direction’.

London is blessed with a good supply of wine merchants that dispense samples from the enomatic, among them the New Street Wine Shop, Vini Italiana, Hedonism Wines and Bottle Apostle, not forgetting Selfridges, which fought a winning battle with the jobsworths of Westminster City Council. Even better news is that the enomatic revolution is spreading. Hangingditch has them in Manchester, Corks Out in its Cheshire shops, Great Western Wine in Bath and Loki Wines in Birmingham.

Enomatic machines provide the basis for all Loki Wines’ promotions with 24 wines always available for sampling. According to Loki’s Phil Innes, ‘the enomatic often acts as the basis of informal tastings between friends, or to help me find out a client’s wine preferences, to make wine accessible and sociable rather than focusing on stuffy traditional values’. At Corks Out, 10 enomatics focus on regions, countries and grape varieties at different price levels’. In the ongoing battle for the hearts and palates of consumers, the enomatic is proving to be the indispensable dispenser.

Something for The Weekend

Something for the Weekend 10 August 2013

Night In

Damia Selección Especial Brut Rosé.

Made from Catalonia’s trepat grape, this delightful Spanish champagne-method fizz smells of strawberries and delivers a creamy summer pudding mousse of bubbles with a lively fresh summery tang on the aftertaste. £8.99, Wholefoods Market stores. www.wholefoodsmarket.com.

Dinner Party

2012 Taste the Difference Pouilly Fumé.

Produced in the Loire Valley by estate grower André Figeat , this pure sauvignon blanc is fresh and smoky in aroma with tantalisingly juicy gooseberry fruit richness and the telltale gunflinty dry finish of exceptional Pouilly Fumé. £11.49, Sainsburys.

Splash Out

2008 Rockford Moppa Springs Grenache Mataro Shiraz

After a peppery and raspberryish aromatic intro, this powerful Rhône-style blend from one of the Barossa Valley’s greatest producers delivers berry fruit opulence balanced by savoury acidity and textured grip. £20, Cambridge Wine Merchants (01954214528), Wine Society (01438741177).