Wine is an element which cannot be separated from the living culture and heritage of many countries around the world. Throughout the millennia wine has brought people together, sculpted our landscape and given birth to a wealth of myths and rites.

Cité des civilisations du vin aims to share this ancient culture with an international public to contribute to the protection of this rich universal heritage.

It is precisely because it fulfils this mission of cultural preservation that Cité des civilisations du vin has been recognised by the government as a project of public interest.

Since 5,500 BC wine has been at the heart of human life. It has sculpted the landscape, become intimately associated with religious beliefs, morals, traditions and social practices and occupied a unique place in the collective imagination.

Universal and democratic, wine transcends geographical and temporal borders, leaving traces both visible and invisible. Wine is constantly reinventing itself, in new forms and with multiple uses.

Magic, mythological and sacred, wine was a part of Egyptian, Greek and Roman rites. Vine and wine, omnipresent in the Old Testament, have taken a central role in Catholic symbolism and worship.

Wine has always been a symbol of hospitality and sharing: wine in social life, wine at Athenian symposia where it was seen as a test of a citizen’s wisdom, the medieval tradition of the ‘Vin d’Honneur’. Wine is about peace, acceptance of others, the meeting of civilisations.

Cultivated and refined, wine has inspired the art of tableware and dining culture: sumptuous gold goblets, Greek vases recounting the adventures of Dionysus, glasses from the ancient courts of Europe, right up to the modern array of tasting glasses.

Website : www.laciteduvin.com/en