Looking to rival fellow French wine-making region Bordeaux, Burgundy recently announced that it will open a new wine museum, across three sites, by 2020. Ideal Wine Company reports
Bordeaux’s museum
France is the ideal wine travel destination. It boasts some of the top ‘old world’ wine-making regions on earth. This includes Champagne, where the eponymous French sparkling wine is made, Bordeaux, which is the country’s most prolific wine-making region and Burgundy in the east. The latter two areas are both known for producing full-bodied, dry reds, albeit from different grape varietals.
In June 2016, Bordeaux opened the Cité du Vin, a wine-based theme park. Nicknamed the ‘Guggenheim of wine,’ for its resemblance to the museum of the same name in Spain, the venue is due to receive 45,000 visitors every year. It includes attractions such as an interactive worldwide vineyard tour, a 600m² wine cellar and a panoramic restaurant on its seventh floor.
Burgundy’s plans
According to Decanter, an industry publication, Burgundy wine bureau the BIVB, is now looking to open a rivalling venue by 2020. The plan, which was approved in a vote by 73% of the body in December 2016, will be called the Cités des Vins de Bourgogne and it will be spread across three locations. These are Beaune, Mâcon and Chablis, three premier Burgundy wine-making communities.
Commenting on the pan, BIVB said that the region’s officials want to “encourage tourists to venture further than the Dijon-Beaune axis, and to explore the wider wine region, to stay for longer, and to return.” The museum will also be designed to inform visitors about Burgundy’s terroirs, climats, and varietals, as well as its wine-making traditions, which in 2015 gained UNESCO World Heritage status.
Unlike the Cité du Vin, the Cités des Vins de Bourgogne will be regional-specific. It will focus exclusively on Burgundy, providing 70 regional wines for attendees to taste. People will also be able to buy wine selection packs at each of the Cités des Vins de Bourgogne’s three centres. Speaking out on the scale of the project, BIVB President Louis-Fabrice Latour said that “it will affect an entire generation.”
We should also note that the largest of the Cités des Vins de Bourgogne’s three centres will be the one that’s based in Beaune. It will form a part of a massive development initiative in the area, which will also include two restaurants, a shopping mall, a large reception hall and a new five star hotel. It will also see the construction of the Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne, a regional wine education centre.
Sample Burgundys
When it opens in 2020, the Cités des Vins de Bourgogne will give you a great opportunity to find out more about Burgundy wine, allowing you to appreciate some truly fantastic vintages. If you can’t wait until 2020, however, browse Ideal Wine Company’s Burgundy wines list. Here you’ll find bottles from some of the region’s top producers, including Clos Saint Dennis, at prices you can afford!
Image credit: Megan Cole
