Cité du Vin, Bordeaux, France

The spectacular tasting room in the Cité du Vin, Bordeaux, France

Bordeaux is wine country. Some of the most famous wines in the world come from this region and Bordeaux has become very wealthy on the wine trade.

The crowning jewel of the wine trade is Cité du Vin, a wine museum, exhibition hall and academic space in the Bacalan district of the city on the banks of the Garonne. The spectacular architecture of the building is meant to resemble wine being swirled in a glass.

The Cité du Vin building resembles wine swirling in a glass, Bordeaux, France

Inside, you can tour an interactive museum which has exhibits of nearly every wine region in Europe and the United States. These are not your typical stuffy museum exhibits, but fun displays you can manipulate yourself. 

One highlight is a room set up to resemble a large dining room where a dinner party is taking place. You wander around the room and eavesdrop on the projections of the guests as they interact, telling eachother about themselves and wine. It's very informative and sometimes funny as some of the guests are educated and knowledgeable while others an pompous blowhards.

One of the interactive exhibits at Cité du Vin. Here you can learn about the aromas in wine. Bordeaux, France

There's also a space with temporary exhibits. When we visited, we saw an interesting exhibition on the history of wine from the country of Georgia. Wine has been made in Georgia for over 8,000 years, making it one of the oldest winemaking regions in the world. Huge winemaking vessels, thousands of years old, formed a big part of the collection we viewed at Cité du Vin. 

An ancient Georgian winemaking vessel, Cité du Vin, Bordeaux, France

There was also a film showing Georgians making wine. Though it was filmed less than one hundred years ago, it appeared that the methods employed were the same for several millennia. This made me seriously want to take a trip to Georgia sometime in the future.

If you go: Bordeaux has an outstanding public transit system. The B tram stops a 3 minute walk from Cité du Vin. There is also a ferry service that is part of the TBM (Bordeaux Public Transit), and there is a stop right behind Cité du Vin. However, be forewarned. We took the B tram out to Cité du Vin, but when we tried to take the ferry back, it never showed up. Several private boats and tour boats stopped at the dock, but we never saw the city ferry. After nearly an hour we gave up and took the B tram back.
***
If you enjoyed this story, you might like my novel Truffle Hunt
Order the Truffle Hunt ebook at Amazon
Order a softcover copy of Truffle Hunt at Eckhartz Press