Bordeaux is world-renowned for being the largest wine growing area in France, with total vineyard coverage of around 120,000 hectares. Wine has been linked to Bordeaux for hundreds of years, with a surge of popularity in the UK occurring when Henry Plantagenet, better known as Henry II, married Eleanor of Aquitaine in the middle of the 12^th century.

However, wine can be found all over the world and that is the special thing about wine; it has forged bonds between people, shaped landscapes and has generated a genuine culture across the world. To respect this, the City of Bordeaux wanted a place where the international community could share this age-old culture and to help protect and pass on this universal heritage. Therefore, on June 1^st 2016, Bordeaux unveiled the world’s first wine theme park, known as La Cité du Vin.

La Cité du Vin

La Cité du Vin, known to the English-speaking community as ‘The City of Wine’, is a theme park that spans an architectural area of 13,350m², corresponding to around 3.3 acres, and reaches a maximum height of 55m. Split over ten floors with a viewing platform on the eighth floor, the numerous spaces inside ensure that La Cité du Vin offers multiple experiences for tourists from all around the world.

The architectural design of the building itself is exquisite. Every way you look at it, it stimulates the imagination, from the intricate, curved edges to even looking like wine swirling in a glass. All of these added together make La Cité du Vin an amazing asset for Bordeaux’s wine culture and a great place to share wine ideas and appreciate it with the international community.

La Cité du Vin consists of over twenty individual exhibits for wine enthusiasts and for people who want to experience some world-wide culture, so that they can explore the varied facets of wine from around the world throughout the ages.

The pièce du résistance of La Cité du Vin has to be the permanent tour. You are invited to travel around the many exhibits with a travel companion, a tool that is available in eight different languages. This tour allows you to walk on La Cité du Vin’s belvedere, where you can view the landscapes of Bordeaux and have a glass of world-class wine at the same time.

One very interesting exhibit in La Cité du Vin involves a boat ride simulator where you can experience the voyages from as far back as 6,000 BC to the present day taken by sea merchants who have carried wine all around the world. An aromatic and cinematic experience, it is a place where you are really immersed into that environment.

There is also a workshop within La Cité du Vin where you can learn the art of wine tasting by gradually awakening the senses to discover the keys of tasting and begin to develop your unique taste palette. This workshop is incredibly interactive, fun and educational, so it appeals to the most respected wine enthusiasts and the cultural wine buffs.

La Cité du Vin is a remarkable place that brings people from all around the world together in celebration and truly respects how wine has influenced civilisation. That is our intention here at Spiral Cellars – we want everyone to truly celebrate their wine collection, whether that may be in a wine room or an accessible spiral wine cellar. If you’d like to know more, you can contact us on 0203 815 3329 and we will be more than happy to help. For the latest news, take a look at our Facebook and Twitter pages.