Cite du Vin

The Cite du Vin opened in 2016 in a curved aluminium and glass building by XTU architects, whose shape is variously explained as wine swirling in a glass, a gnarled vine stock or the eddies of the Garonne beside it. The permanent exhibition deliberately avoids being a Bordeaux museum: it covers wine cultures worldwide, from Georgia and the Caucasus to the New World, through screens, smell stations, films and interactive tables rather than objects and bottles. The ticket includes a glass in the Belvedere on the eighth floor, which looks over the river and the city. A tower of bottles from around the world stands in the cellar shop.

What you actually see

• The building - a curved aluminium form on the riverfront.
• The world exhibition - wine cultures from Georgia to the New World.
• The smell stations - aroma exercises through the permanent route.
• The Belvedere tasting - a glass on the eighth floor over the Garonne.

When to go

Year-round; it closes some Mondays in low season and for a January break. Timed entry is used at peak. Allow two to three hours for the permanent route.

Honest expectations

It is a multimedia experience rather than a collection of objects, which some find thin. There is no vineyard or working cellar here. The included glass is a single pour.

Nearby

Bordeaux old town lies south along the river; Saint-Emilion is east.