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Meet Your New Favourite Museum

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As if we didn’t already need an excuse to visit the charming French city of Bordeaux, this year it celebrated the opening of a brand new hotspot: La Cité du Vin, a museum-meets-theme-park attraction, all about wine. Bordeaux’ mayor, Alain Juppé, refers to the attraction as his very own Guggenheim, promising that not only will the building’s architectural aesthetic please passersby but that it will fit into the local culture and drive development forward in the city’s key industry: winemaking.

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The 10-storeyed, 13,350-square-meter structure was designed by Persian architectural firm, XTU, and the UK-based museum design experts, Casson Mann. In order to set the mood of the wine-themed interior, the building’s structure was made to evoke the swooshing of wine in a glass. The surrounding gardens, the exterior structure, and its interior spaces are all designed in harmony, maintaining the cohesive vision of large-scale fluidity and movement.

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In addition to a permanent wine tour situated in a 3,000-square-metre space, and separated thematically into 19 areas, the locale will host two temporary exhibitions per year, highlighting key trends and forces influencing the wine industry. Furthermore, educational workshops, tastings, and performances in the impressive auditorium will contribute to La Cité du Vin’s goal of celebrating the cultural heritage of wine. Not only will the museum explore the legacy of wine as a beverage—which already seems like a worthy cause for celebration in our humble opinion—but it will also examine the presence of wine in the arts, and wine in myth and literature, and wine in the environmental landscape—sprawling vineyards and all.

The inaugural exhibition is on now, featuring the work of photographic artist Isabelle Rozenbaum. Be sure to stop by before Carte Blanche for Isabelle Rozenbaum closes on January 8, 2017.

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