Bordeaux needs to embrace wine tourism and celebrate the enjoyment of wine rather than the technical expertise that goes into making it, producers said as six chateaux won Best of Wine Tourism awards earlier this week.

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.’

Written by Jane Anson

Explore More
Jane Anson
Jane Anson

Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

Roederer awards 2016: International Feature Writer of the Year