Wine tasting in the airport departures lounge at London City

Quick sip of Chateau Petrus 1993 while you wait for your flight? That's what London City Airport -- the tiny runway right next to the Canary Wharf financial district -- is offering.

Weekly wine tastings run from half past four until half past six every Wednesday up to 28 March, with sommelier Ben Mulvaney and the staff at City Bar & Grill in the airport's departures lounge, after security.

You'll be able to pick up a "wine flight" of three tasting-sized 50ml glasses. Each flight will set you back between £8 and £21 (A$12-31), with six flights available. Just don't get too enthralled and miss your actual flight.

But even after the weekly tastings wrap up in March -- or if you happen to be passing through on another day of the week -- you can take advantage of the restaurant's Enomatic machine, which preserves top-notch bottles once opened and dispenses them in tasting-sized glasses of 50ml.

If the Chateau Petrus isn't your kind of thing, pick up something a little more Aussie with a '94 Penfolds Grange, or go for something old world with a Prinz von Hessen Dachsfilet Riesling or a nice drop of Châteauneuf du Pape.

If you're spending some time in the UK, you can even have wines you enjoyed at the airport delivered to your hotel or short-term apartment.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.