By Johan Vartanian · SEO & CRO Specialist at Billetto · Last updated 12 August 2026
Johan helps European event organisers grow their audience through search and conversion optimisation. 5+ years in SEO across marketplaces and content sites.
Quick answer
Wine tasting events sit in a sweet spot for organisers: high perceived value per ticket, a clear premium audience, and a format that lends itself naturally to ticketed bookings rather than walk-ins. A well-run tasting for 25 guests can comfortably generate £2,000+ in revenue in a single evening — but only if you've handled licensing, sourcing, and pricing correctly.
The piece most first-time organisers underestimate isn't the wine itself — it's licensing. Serving alcohol to paying guests in the UK requires either a Premises Licence or a Temporary Event Notice, and the difference between the two will shape how you plan everything else. This guide walks you through the full setup.
A wine tasting is a structured event — typically two to three hours — where guests pay to taste a curated selection of wines, usually five to seven, with guided commentary from a sommelier or knowledgeable host. The format works commercially because guests are paying for the experience and the expertise, not just the wine; this lets organisers charge £40–£90 per head against wine costs of £8–£15 per head.
Common formats include themed regional tastings (Burgundy, Tuscany, South Africa), blind tastings, food-paired tastings, and sommelier masterclasses. Each format suits a slightly different audience and price point.
For a standard 25-guest tasting in London, expect total event costs of £800–£1,400. For a broader look at how much it costs to organise an event across formats, see our full cost overview. Here's a typical breakdown:
| Line item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wine (6 wines, ~25ml per guest) | £180–£300 | £7–£12 per guest at standard tier |
| Venue (3 hours) | £200–£500 | Private room in a restaurant or wine bar |
| Sommelier or expert host | £200–£400 | If not yourself |
| Glassware (if not provided) | £40–£100 | Hire or use venue stock |
| Cheese, charcuterie, palate cleansers | £100–£200 | £4–£8 per guest |
| Temporary Event Notice | £21 | One-off events only |
| Marketing | £50–£150 | Social, partnerships |
| Ticketing fees | ~3% of ticket price | Standard Billetto fee structure |
At a £55 ticket price, 25 guests gross £1,375 against costs of roughly £900 — a margin of around £475 for a single evening. Premium tastings at £85–£120 with 20 guests can clear £1,000+ in profit.
The single most important venue decision is whether they already hold a Premises Licence. A licensed venue (a restaurant, wine bar, or hotel) removes the entire TEN process — you simply hire the space and serve under their licence.
Restaurants with private dining rooms are ideal: licensed, atmospheric, often willing to handle food service, and they may waive room hire if you commit to a food spend. Expect £150–£500 for a private room in a mid-tier London restaurant.
Wine bars and independent merchants are even better when they're up for collaboration — they often host tastings as their own venue model. Specialist event spaces work too but tend to be more expensive and require you to bring everything yourself.
Avoid: most coworking spaces (rarely licensed) and your own home if you're charging tickets to the public (raises licensing complications).
The reliable pricing formula for wine tastings:
Ticket price = (wine cost per head + venue cost per head + service cost per head) × 3
Wine tastings carry higher margins than most event types because guests are paying largely for the experience. A 3x markup on cost is industry standard and rarely meets resistance.
Worked example: wine cost £10 per head, venue £15 per head (£375 room hire ÷ 25 guests), service and incidentals £6 per head. Total cost per head: £31. Ticket price = £31 × 3 = £93, which you'd round to £95.
For a more accessible tier, drop wine cost to £7 per head and venue to £8 per head, giving a £63 ticket price (round to £60). For premium tastings with rare or aged wines, the multiplier can stretch to 4x or higher.
Wine tastings have two ticketing requirements most event types don't: strict guest list management (because your licence, whether TEN or Premises, limits attendance) and a clear refund policy (£75+ tickets attract more cancellation requests than £30 events). Whatever platform you choose should handle both without workarounds.
A working guest list means you can export a clean attendee list on the morning of the event — names, emails, ticket tier, dietary notes — for licensing compliance and for pre-event communication. Billetto's attendee export is a one-click download and includes any custom fields you added at checkout (e.g. "Any wine preferences we should know?").
Refunds are the other quiet friction point. A "refund up to 14 days before" policy is standard for premium tastings, and you want it enforced automatically — not fielded by email at 11pm the night before. Billetto lets you set the refund window per event, and refunds process to the original payment method within 5–10 working days.
Payment methods for UK wine tasting bookings run overwhelmingly on Mastercard and Visa; Billetto accepts both by default with no configuration. Three smaller Billetto details worth flagging: no listing fees (some platforms charge £10–£50 to publish), full attendee data ownership (you can email past guests about your next tasting), and mobile QR check-in so guests don't need to print anything.
Wine tasting audiences cluster in three predictable places, and our 12-week event marketing timeline tells you exactly when to lean on each:
Instagram, specifically food and wine accounts. Tag the wines, the producer, and any wine bloggers in your city. Reels of the wines being poured perform especially well. A single piece of content shared by a regional food blogger can fill half your seats.
Local food and lifestyle newsletters are a high-leverage channel that organisers often overlook. Newsletters like Time Out's London edition, Foodism, and local Substack-based dining newsletters reach exactly the audience you want.
Partnerships with wine merchants and food businesses. If you're serving wines from a particular merchant, ask them to promote the tasting to their customer list. Cheese shops, charcuterie suppliers, and restaurants often have warm audiences for tastings.
Serving alcohol at a paid wine tasting in the UK requires either a venue with a Premises Licence or your own Temporary Event Notice (£21, filed at least 10 working days in advance). This is the section most first-time organisers skip and later regret. Serving alcohol to paying guests in the UK is regulated under the Licensing Act 2003, and there are two main routes:
1. Use a venue with a Premises Licence. The easiest option by far. Restaurants, hotels, wine bars, and many event venues already hold one. You hire the space and serve under their licence. No paperwork on your end.
2. Apply for a Temporary Event Notice (TEN). For one-off events in unlicensed venues:
If you're running tastings regularly in your own space, you'll eventually need to apply for a Premises Licence — a longer and more expensive process (typically £100–£1,905 depending on rateable value) but a one-time cost.
You'll also want public liability insurance — most event organisers carry £2–£5 million cover, available from PolicyBee or Hiscox from around £30 for a single event.
Six wines is the standard for a two-hour tasting. Five works for a shorter format; seven only works if guests are sitting throughout and you keep pours small (~25ml).
No, but you do need to know the wines you're serving well enough to talk through them confidently. If you're not comfortable hosting, hire a freelance sommelier — they typically charge £200–£400 for the evening and dramatically lift the experience.
Technically yes with a Temporary Event Notice, but most local authorities will treat this carefully and neighbours can object. Most organisers running paid tastings use a licensed venue from the start.
6–10 weeks before the event. Wine tasting bookings cluster later than other event types — expect 60%+ of bookings in the final two weeks.
Wine tastings have low no-show rates — typically 3–7%. The higher ticket price and the premium positioning self-select for committed attendees.
Billetto makes it simple to set up and sell tickets for a wine tasting event. Create your event in minutes, set capacity, choose your ticket tiers, and start accepting bookings. Create event on Billetto and have ticket sales live the same day.