Bordeaux should 'celebrate wine not technical expertise'

Bordeaux chateaux including Château Loudenne, d’Arsac, Giscours and Kirwan were national winners in the national Best of Wine Tourism awards on Wednesday.

Top honours went to six producers: Château du Grand Mouëys for Architecture, Château Loudenne for Accomodation, Chateau d’Arsac (Art & Culture), Château Giscours (Events), Maison des Vins de Bergerac (Wine Education), and Château Kirwan for Parks & Gardens. There were almost 100 original entrants.

Alain Sichel, president of the Union of Negotiants in Bordeaux, said tourism was the best way for people to understand Bordeaux wines.

‘Tourism is very new to this area, but I’m convinced it’s essential. The best way for Bordeaux wines to rebuild their reputation is for people to come here and see the love that we put into making each bottle,’ he said at the third annual Best of Wine Tourism awards

The awards are organised by the Great Wine Capitals network in each of the eight wine capitals: Bordeaux, Bilbao, Cape Town, Florence, Melbourne, Mendoza, San Francisco and Oporto.

National winners have been awarded in each city and will now compete to be declared International Winners in a ceremony to be held in San Francisco on 16 November.

‘Bordeaux’s image needs to be less about technical expertise and more about the spirit of enjoyment. We need to rearticulate what drinking our wine means,’ Philippe Raoux, of Chateau d’Arsac told decanter.com.

Chateau d’Arsac won the Art & Culture category for the sculptures and modern art that Raoux has collected over the past 10 years, both inside the chateau, and among the vines that surround it.

‘Young people nowadays can live without wine. We need to recreate the moments of consumption, and encouraging wine tourism is all part of that.’