A shrine to wine
Unique new theme park pays tribute to wine’s role in civilizations, religion and culture with interactive exhibits and experiences
BORDEAUX, FRANCE— There is no wrong answer, we’re told, but there is a right.
The tour guides from Château Mouton Rothschild — one of the world’s most prized premier crus — guess Crémant, but this amateur wine connoisseur sticks to Prosecco.
Maybe it was recognizing the light-bodied sparkling wine’s loosely dispersed bubbles.
More likely it was influenced by the open-air Italian market we were sipping our bubbly in: fresh, metrehigh piles of produce around us, salivating over the scent of ripe tomatoes and sweet basil and taking in the lively chatter and whining accordion music.
Only we weren’t in Italy or at a market; we were sitting in a circular room at La Cité du Vin, a new wine-themed attraction in Bordeaux that opened on June 1.
After confirming my hunch, our host introduces us to the next virtual food with real wine pairing by dimming the lights and launching new 360-degree projections, injected scents and sounds.
Tapping into our senses, we jet set around the world’s markets — Italy, then Vietnam, Uruguay and Africa — equipped only with our wine glasses.
Few places are as synonymous with fine wine as Bordeaux. Blessed with gravelly soils and an oceanic climate, Bordeaux’s wine industry, a production that started in the eighth century, brings in about $15.7 billion (U.S.) annually. Bordeaux’s La Cité du Vin is an $87-million tribute dedicated to the living heritage of wine, its role in civilizations, religion and culture.
Part avant-garde museum, exhibition and tasting centre, the modern theme park levels the field so everyone, from curious teetotaller (including children) to master sommelier, can eat, drink and play in the same immersive learning environment.
It takes about two hours to complete a self-guided tour through the facility’s 19 permanent modules using the audio-meets-tablet headset guide. That swells to 10 hours when fully immersed in the120 audio-visual productions and changing exhibits, such as photographic artist Isabelle Rozenbaum’s capture of the building’s construction, all dispersed in the 3,000-square-metre exhibition space.
Examine the world’s winemaking regions through three giant screens, or be entertained by diorama boxes depicting fascinating (and often scandalous) stories relating to intoxication; dig further and you might learn about the wine history in countries such as Namibia and Tahiti.
I get absorbed with the terroir table, feeding off each winemaker’s story about their world, triggering a series of pop-up windows on the exhibit’s topographical map, and almost miss last call at the building’s terrace bar, the Belvedere.
The grand finale features a taste from the day’s extensive selection of world wines, and might include a white Bordeaux from Château La Rame.
Savour the panoramic view of the city 35 metres above the Garonne River as you sip on your admission-inclusive tipple.
As a further supplement, check out the workshops, three tasting laboratories and Le 7, La Cité du Vin’s restaurant for contemporary cuisine.
With 500 world wines available, I splurge on a glass of La Parde de HautBailly. As far as museum shops go, don’t miss Latitude20, the building’s wine bar and reference cellar, which holds more than 14,000 bottles of wine from 80 countries. Here knowledgeable sommeliers help you narrow down that ideal bottle, whether it’s a $16 Bordeaux or a rarer find. Even more wine Looking for more ways to enjoy the legendary wine-growing region? Routes du Vin on the main floor of La Cité du Vin helps connect visitors to Bordeaux’s six wine trails.
Trek northwest to elegant Médoc, home of four of the appellation’s six premier crus (some of the world’s most expensive wines).
Our drive along the region’s 80-kilometre “château trail” with Bordeaux Top Growth stopped at wine estates such as Château Margaux, where our motley crew of wide-eyed enthusiasts gawked at the well-manicured grounds.
In Haut-Médoc, we tour wine magnate Bernard Magrez’s Château La Tour Carnet’s medieval castle, now a bed and breakfast. Sample a selec- tion of its wines at the tasting bar.
To the east, in picturesque SaintÉmilion, with its UNESCO World Heritage vineyards and “hill of 1000 châteaux,” we visit Château Troplong Mondot, known for its Premier grand cru classé B wines.
While the velvety wines are lovely to sample in the estate’s stylish appointment-only cellar, their dark berry aromas and silky tannins shone best when paired with chef David Charrier’s refined cuisine at the vineyard’s Michelin-starred Les Belles Perdrix.
There’s compound butter made with the chateau’s red wine; a delightful wild mackerel whose richness is cut by confit lemon and wine from 2006’s harvest — topped only by the smoother, more scrumptious 1998 vintage I’m sharing with my dining companions. The latter enhanced Charrier’s lard and wineslicked roasted Salers flank steak, and was a delicious reminder that sometimes life’s most civilized plea- sures simply require good company, real food and great wine.
Santé. Renée S. Suen was hosted by Atout France, the Aquitaine Tourism Board and Air France, which did not review or approve this story.
Visitors can examine the world’s winemaking regions through three giant screens