Seven years after its opening, the permanent exhibition of the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux has just been largely renewed. Guided tour.
Since its opening, the place has been a great success with an average of 400,000 visitors per year. Inaugurated in 2016, the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux borders the Garonne. Its carafe shape is also reminiscent of a vine stock, or the strength of the beverage swirling around in a glass. Inside this beautiful modern setting, a permanent exhibition recounts the great epic of wine, from Antiquity to the present day.
“It’s very entertaining, I found it fun and instructive at the same time”, summarizes a visitor. With the help of a digital audio medium and headphones (detached from the ears), we stroll through six universes. We fly over the vineyards, thanks to a projection on three giant screens, which extends to the ground; A film reveals the great saga of Bordeaux; a mapping still shows how the wine is served.
You can even smell the families of aromas in the wine. “We are not used to appreciating a wine by its smell. We necessarily taste it, but smelling it to find the aromas is much more complex”commented another visitor.
On interactive terminals, we participate in quizzes. “There is a very stupid thing that I learned, says a Bordeaux lover, is that the young wines had to be aerated. Whereas for me, it was the opposite. Amazing!”
“Get on board, sail the seas, and let the wine tell you how it conquered the world…” This is the subject of this 7-minute film, narrated by actress Romane Bohringer. She tells us that a well-named Jean-Louis Vignes, a Girondin cooper, planted grape varieties in Hawaii, then in California, at the beginning of the 19th century. Man propelled this region into the history of great wines.
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From Egyptian tombs to 18th century dinners, passing by Greek banquets, in the gallery of civilizations, we go back in time. “It’s a very interesting exhibition, we learned a lot of things. For example, the place of wine in different civilizations, among the Romans, and in different religions, among the Jews, how they used wine at the time celebrations.”
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And time flies! “Because we’ve been here for more than two hours already. We’re going to enjoy the tasting afterwards. Up there, with the view of the Belvedere…”
From the Belvedere, you can devour the 360-degree panorama of Bordeaux, on the horizon, the port of the moon, the Chaban-Delmas bridge, the spire of the Saint-Michel Basilica… And you enjoy a glass of wine, among fifteen references, every day. Children are offered grape juice. A course for juniors is also offered at the Cité du Vin.
“Bordeaux, we didn’t know them very well. So, we delve into them a bit. We make discoveries, and then the place is very beautiful, it’s an architectural success”concludes a young woman from Lyon.
IN PRACTICE
