La Cité du Vin

It was a bit overcast today but, as it wasn’t raining, we decided to walk the 3.5 kilometres along the Garonne river to La Cité du Vin (City of Wine). We made it without getting rained upon and arrived just as they were opening the doors. The design of this building is spectacular - externally it looks like a wine decanter. Ian had pre-purchased our tickets so we didn’t have to wait long. We headed upstairs to collect our self-guided tour audio guide and we were off. The place is huge and a little overwhelming to be honest. Luckily the audio guide allows you to select specific areas of interest, and then loosely plans the visit for you.

We went through the following exhibits in the first section, most of which were interactive: “Vineyards from the Skies”, a film projected onto three large screens that flies over stunning vineyard landscapes all over the world; “Wine Planets”, on how climate affects vine cultivation and the historical spread of vines around the world throughout the ages (something to thank the Romans and religion for); and, “Around the World”, about Winegrowers and terroirs. This looked at ten wine growing regions with contrasting natural conditions, and you could watch short videos of the winegrowers telling their stories. We chose winegrowers from France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Spain.

This first section took about an hour, so Ian and I knew we were not going to get through the entire exhibition. We next looked at the exhibits on “Wine through the ages”. In the “Gallery of civilisations” we travelled through time in search of the great civilisations of wine. We then did “Across the Seas”, where you “board” a ship for a sea voyage through the centuries and accompany wine merchants all over the world to see the challenges they faced including pirates, illness and weather, both raging storms and still seas. We also saw the major river and sea routes used over the centuries to transport wine.

The next exhibit was titled “Divine Wine” and was a series of paintings, texts and music which are interwoven to evoke the wine of mythology and religion. We then headed to the “Buffet of the 5 senses” where you try to wake up your senses to wine tasting to a fun (but challenging) olfactory journey. I did ok on this section, but some scents I just couldn’t smell and others were so strong for me.

The last few areas we looked at were: “In the vines”, learning how winemakers select grape varieties, prune vines and look after their grapes; Winemaking - looking at the various secrets of winemaking, in stainless steel, in the cellar and in the bottle; and, an exhibit about the six wine types - dry whites, sweet whites, rosés, sparkling wines, red wines and fortified wines.

There was still so much to see but we were done. We headed up to the 8th floor for our free tasting and to take in the views of Bordeaux from the viewing platform of the decanter. Unfortunately, while we had been submerged in the exhibition the rain had arrived. For our tasting Ian had a red from Domaine Les Caprices and I tasted a dry white from Chateau Pierrail.

As it was still raining, we chose the path of least resistance and had lunch at the Cite du Vin restaurant, Restaurant Le 7 which, surprise surprise, is situated on level 7. For lunch Ian had a chicken dish - Volaille Fermiere, I had Foie Gras and we both had a red, one from Trianon 14 and the other from Cadet Larrivet. As I only had an entree, I also indulged in a dessert and I am so glad I did as it was a feast for the eyes and sublime for the palate. I even shared it with Ian, a true measure of love in my opinion. We finished the meal with an espresso and ristretto which came with an abundant amount of delicious dark chocolate.

By the time we were ready to leave the rain had nearly stopped, so we decided to walk back to the city centre to do a bit more wandering (and shopping!).Read more