Yesterday marked a monumental date in wine history. The epic wine theme park known as La Cite du Vin (City of Wine) opened in Bordeaux, France.
Basically, this is Disneyland for wine lovers.
This $91 million complex located on the banks of the Garonne River is dedicated to all things vino. Visitors can savor dozens of multimedia installations that “add up to one of the most entertaining, inspiring explorations into what wine is—culturally, sensorily, historically, economically” ever created, according to Food & Wine.
Cite du Vin
Dozens of high-tech multimedia exhibits deliver immersive sensory education to wine lovers.
Cite du Vin
One of the more prominent features is a 250-seat auditorium, named after America’s original wine enthusiast, Thomas Jefferson. Visitors can enjoy a scurvy-free simulated boat ride that shows you what it was like to be at sea, sailing the globe on merchant routes. There’s even a sort of “Drunk History” exhibit, where you sit in a huge plush chair and listen to famous stories of inebriation as told by actors playing figures like Voltaire or Napoleon.
Cite du Vin
The massive building was designed by Paris-based XTU Architects, which is supposed to resemble wine swirling in a glass.
XTU Architects, © Delphine Isart
While all the fun happens indoors, the 10-story high structure is a serious architectural masterpiece itself. Designed to look like a swirl of wine in a glass, the massive structure includes 900 reflective glass panels and 2,500 gold-hued, lacquered aluminum panels, supported inside by 128 huge wooden spines.
The cost of entry to the epic wine theme park is just $22, much more reasonable than the $100 or so it costs to get into Disneyland. Now it’s time to figure out how to expense a company-wide field trip…
For more information visit http://www.laciteduvin.com/en
