Handpicked experience · Bordeaux
Bordeaux, France
Priority entry to a wine museum in the world's most famous wine city that deliberately refuses to be about the local wine, plus a glass at the top with the river below.
If you love wine, then make sure to visit the famous La Cité du Vin wine museum in the city of Bordeaux!
Book through The Trip Club and avail of a priority access ticket that'll get you to avoid the hassles of lining up
Learn about the history of French wine and the delicate processes that go into making the wonderful drink.
Drop by the Belvédère at the top of the museum and sample a glass of top grade wine and enjoy the view.
A global survey rather than a local showcase
Priority entry at the door
A structure that repeats almost nothing in its form
A glass poured on the upper floor above the river
Content delivered at whatever speed suits you, in many tongues
A choice that reaches well beyond French bottles
Priority access to La Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, with a tasting included. The building stands apart from the old centre on the riverbank, and the first thing to know is that it is not a museum about Bordeaux.
Visitors arrive in the most famous wine city in the world expecting a shrine to the local product. What they get is a global survey: vineyards in Georgia and Lebanon, terraces in the Douro, volcanic ash in the Canaries, wine in tombs and on ships and in religious law.
That was a deliberate decision. The city already sells its own wine perfectly well, and a museum devoted to it would be a very expensive advertisement. Instead the local trade appears as one chapter among many, which is a stronger argument for it than another gallery of château labels would have been.
The exterior is a twisted, curving form clad in glass and aluminium, intended to suggest wine turning in a glass and the gnarl of an old vine. Whatever you make of the metaphor, the practical result is a structure with very few repeated elements — panels are individually shaped, and the interior circulation curves with the shell rather than running in a grid.
It reads as a deliberate refusal to look like a château, which is what most visitors expect a wine museum here to imitate.
The included tasting is taken on the upper floor, in a room that looks out over the river and back at the city. The pour is a single glass, chosen from a list that ranges well beyond France, and it is served at the end rather than the start of the visit.
Doing it in that order is the point: you taste after several hours of learning how wine is made in a dozen countries, not before.
Bordeaux's trade was built on being ruled from England for the better part of three centuries after a royal marriage in the twelfth century. That connection created an export market, an English name for the wine and a merchant class organised around shipping it, and the shape of the trade today still reflects it.
The exhibition is self-paced, delivered through a handset in your own language, and takes two to three hours if you engage with it properly. It is heavily audio-based, so headphones matter and a hearing difficulty is worth planning around.
The building is a tram ride from the centre rather than a walk. It is busiest in the middle of the day, and the top floor is at its best in late afternoon light.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
No. It surveys wine worldwide, with the local trade as one chapter, which surprises many visitors.
Because the city already promotes its own wine effectively, and a purely local museum would have amounted to an expensive advertisement.
Wine turning in a glass and the twist of an old vine, which is why the form curves and repeats almost nothing.
At the end of the visit, on the upper floor, in a room overlooking the river and the city.
A single glass chosen from a list that reaches well beyond France, in keeping with the museum's global scope.
Two to three hours if you engage with the material, since it is dense and self-paced.
It is heavily audio-based through a handset, so that is worth planning around before visiting.
By tram rather than on foot; it stands apart from the historic centre on the riverbank.