French grape escapes – santé!

France has taken its time getting around to wine tourism. Our neighbours long considered that their wine sufficed unto itself. It barely needed marketing, let alone the bells and whistles of tourism. They’ve changed, mind. Whether it be in prestige projects such as the luxury hotel, restaurant and vineyard of the Domaine La Coste, near Aix (granted, the brainchild of an Irishman) or the fellow with a beret opening his cellar door with a smile rather than a scowl, they’re getting the hang of it. And it’s paying. The latest figures available – for 2016 – suggest that wine-associated tourism attracted 10 million visitors, compared to 7.5 million in 2009. It generated £4.6 billion. That’s a lot of money. Should you wish to add to it, here are 10 of our favourite French wine visitor experiences. This grand shiny swirl of a building rises by the Garonne river, taking wine into new realms of entertainment, rendering it fun even for those who can’t tell a cabernet sauvignon from a dandelion and burdock. Across six floors, it’s a hi-tech romp of panache, insight and inventiveness, grabbing you by all senses for an interactive waltz through wine and its attendant subjects: art, culture, agriculture, transport (look out for a terrific moving boat show), civilisation and sensuality. Particularly memorable is a banqueting chamber alive with holograms and a floor show tackling wine, food and festivity through the ages. There are tastings, a restaurant up top and, from March 23 to June 24, a temporary show exploring wine and music. The place well justifies the £18 entry fee (laciteduvin.com). Burgundy is rife with châteaux, manors, abbeys and other testimonies to a past of temporal and spiritual prominence. But the region took early retirement from international affairs to play to its real strengths: eating, drinking and growing red in the face. The great buildings serve this purpose as well as they served the former one, and none more happily than the medieval Pierreclos, rising on a knoll just outside the eponymous village, west of Mâcon. Here be fine wine, accommodation and the sense that the revolution never quite got this far. The glorious gold-stone spot overlooks a ruffled landscape – hills, vines topped with forest, artfully placed farms– indicating that all is well with France.