The Bordeaux Wine Museum: Tips For a Fun Visit to La Cité du Vin

The Bordeaux Wine Museum, known as La Cité du Vin, is not like any other museum.

Some call it a wine theme park, or a wine playground.  National Geographic named it as one of the best museums in the world.

The thing that sets it apart from any other museum you’ve ever experienced is that it’s fun.  And there’s wine.

It’s not the typical museum where you go to look at stuff.  At La Cité du Vin, you do stuff.  It’s an interactive experience.

If you’re going to build a wine museum, it makes sense to put it in Bordeaux, France, the wine capital of the world.  Intended to resemble the swirl of wine in a glass, the unique building opened to visitors in 2016.

With 10 stories, 3000 square metres and 19 themed areas, it’s a big place.

Here’s everything you need to know to get the most fun out of your visit to the wine museum in Bordeaux.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
What to expect at the Bordeaux Wine Museum
How to get tickets to La Cité du Vin
Can’t-miss exhibits at La Cité du Vin
Where you can save some time
Tasting wine at La Cité du Vin
Cruising the Garonne River
Dinner at Restaurant Le 7
How to get to La Cité du Vin

What to expect at the Bordeaux Wine Museum

You don’t have to be a cork dork (wine expert) to visit the wine museum.  There is something for everyone.

The Permanent Exhibition covers 19 areas where you can learn everything about wine, from its history, to how it’s made, to how to pair it with different kinds of foods.  Your ticket includes a smart audio guide that starts the animations when you stop at each exhibit.  It also provides descriptions, in eight different languages, over a set of open headphones, so that you can still hear what’s going on around you.

There is no particular route to follow through the exhibits.  You’ll get a museum map and suggestions on four themed visits you may wish to follow.

On average, visitors spend two to three hours taking in the exhibits.  But you may want to allow more time overall because, each ticket includes a glass of wine (your choice from 20 different wines).  The wine is served at the Belvedere on the 8th floor, which has a panoramic view of Bordeaux.   If you’re keen to learn more about wine tasting, the museum offers scheduled tasting workshops.

You’ll also want to check out the amazing round wine shop, the restaurants at the museum (more on that below) and the tour desk.  Here, you can book tours to the wine regions of Bordeaux, or get information for a do-it-yourself version.

How to get tickets to La Cité du Vin

You don’t have to buy tickets in advance, but you’ll save time lining up if you do.

Online tickets for a specific date for the Permanent Exhibition and glass of wine are 20 Euros for adults, or, if you’re not sure when you’ll go, you can buy an open ticket for 25 Euros.  There are also combination tickets that include a workshop or tour.

Book your skip-the-line entrance ticket and wine tasting here.

Can’t-miss exhibits at La Cité du Vin

The multimedia exhibits

It’s really a matter of taste, but I especially enjoyed the big multimedia exhibits.  Most of them are outlined in the museum’s themed tour, “Feast Your Eyes” for lovers of spectacle.

One of the best is the World Wine Tour on big screens, where you fly in a helicopter over 20 of the great wine making regions around the world. If sailing is more your thing, you can become a passenger on a wine merchant’s ship and take historic voyages across the seas.  For example, you can go on a 14th century trip from Bordeaux to England or cross the Mediterranean on a Roman tanker.

At the Banquet of Legends, you can sit at a banquet table with famous drinkers from the past, like Voltaire, Churchill, Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson.  They debate the most legendary wines of all time.

There’s also the slightly salacious Bacchus and Venus exhibit, where you sink yourself into a red settee and immerse yourself in a daydream on the ceiling about wine’s role in romance.

At the “Five Senses” exhibit, you experience wine using all of the senses, from the colours to the aromas in wine.  I had fun at the trumpet-like olfactory machines, where you take a whiff and guess the notes in wine, from barnyard smell to roses, chocolate and pencil shavings  (yum!).

The art of living

Where you can save some time

The Terroir Table shows the impact of climate on vineyards, as clouds and rain pass across it (with the scent of wet earth) and the landscape turns green.  Life-size wine-makers from the wine regions of the world pop up to share their secrets about what makes their wine unique.  It’s fascinating, especially for those who want to learn more about grape growing.  However, there are hours of information here, so you may need to budget your time.

The same is true for the Wine Portraits section, which features cool-looking wooden wine bottles, each with a circular screen showing swirling wine.  When you pass your hand over the screen, you’ll get the full story on a particular wine.

Tasting wine at La Cité du Vin

Well, if you ask me, this is the most fun part of the museum.

A ticket to the museum includes a glass of wine in the Belvedere on the eighth floor of the museum.

You can choose from a regularly updated list of 20 wines made by museum partners from various wine regions around the world.    You can also step outside on a walkway and enjoy the terrific view.

Cruising the Garonne River

Another fun thing to do at the Bordeaux wine museum is to take a 1.5 hour wine tasting cruise from the dock just behind the building.

It was a lovely afternoon boating excursion as we cruised past the 18th-century façades of Bordeaux, romantic bridges, and busy ports along the way.  Two wines, a white and a red, from the Bordeaux region were served, while a guide described the history of the city and the wine trade here.

Book your wine tasting cruise from Cité du Vin here.

Dinner at Restaurant Le 7

I highly recommend that you time your wine tasting or dinner at sunset – – it made the whole experience even more amazing for me.

There are two places to eat and drink on the main floor of the museum, a Brasserie wine bar and a snack bar.  Both are open until 7:30 p.m.

If you want to cap off your visit with a gourmet meal, head up to Restaurant Le 7, on the 7th floor of the museum.  It’s open until 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday (7 p.m. on Sundays), and serves seasonal Bordelaise dishes and a number of fresh fish choices.  The wine list includes over 500 wines from 50 different countries.

I enjoyed a light bite here, which was paired with a local white wine and a captivating sunset. A perfect ending to this world of wine!

How to get to La Cité du Vin

Travel Bliss Now was a guest of La Cité du Vin and Visit Bordeaux, but my opinions are always my own.

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