Uncorking The Past: Exploring The Fascinating World Of Wine

Shalini Singh takes us on a tour of four unique wine museums that create an interactive and immersive wine experience

- Shalini Singh

When we think of a museum we usually imagine a building with galleries and exhibition spaces filled with artwork or historic and culturally significant artefacts. But with advancements in technology museums are now offering an immersive experience with audio-visual exhibits to make the experience more interactive. This is true of wine museums too.

The concept of wine museums has existed for centuries focusing primarily on showcasing the history and production of wine in a particular region. Over time, these institutions have expanded their scope. These new-age wine museums are not only places where objects of historical or cultural importance are collected, preserved, and displayed; they are also great places to learn, appreciate, get inspired, or escape into an exciting and virtual world of wine. They provide educational programmes or research workshops and develop wine community engagements.

Whether you are new to wine or an expert, these museums will ‘wow’ you with historical artefacts and audio-visual exhibits about wine’s cultural, civilisational and heritage dimensions as well as the traditions, rituals and ceremonies related to wine-drinking around the world. Wine tourism often focusses on vineyard and winery visits, but there is much to be learned within the walls of a wine museum too.

La Cité Du Vin, Bordeaux, France

The Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, which receives more than 40,000 visitors every year, recently renovated its exhibits to make them more inclusive and interactive. The Foundation for Wine Culture and Civilisations (a public-interest foundation) manages the museum with the mission of making wine’s universal and living heritage accessible to the broadest possible audience.