Bordeaux Wine Museum (Musée du Vin et du Négoce)

The Musée du Vin et du Négoce, the Wine and Trade Museum of Bordeaux, is housed in an eighteenth-century merchant's house in the Chartrons district, on the Rue Borie. Chartrons is the old quarter beside the Garonne where the city's wine merchants, the négociants, settled and did business, and the museum is a good way to understand how Bordeaux built its fortune. The streets of the quarter, with their low warehouses and elegant town houses, still bear the mark of the trade, and the antique shops along the Rue Notre-Dame add to the atmosphere.

The story of the wine trade in Bordeaux goes back to the Middle Ages. When Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet in 1152, and he became king of England, the wines of Bordeaux gained a large and reliable market across the Channel, and the English developed a taste for what they called claret. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from northern Europe, among them Dutch, English, Irish and German families, settled in the Chartrons and built up the trade, with warehouses on the quays and fine houses behind them. The museum explains this history with objects, documents and displays, and shows how wine was stored, transported and sold. The famous classification of 1855, which ranked the great châteaux of the Médoc, is part of the background that visitors will recognise.

The building has a vaulted cellar, where the visit leads, and it is typical of the merchant houses of the period, with arched windows, wrought iron and a courtyard. The museum occupies only part of the structure, as the rest has been converted into apartments. At the end of the tour, guests can take a guided tasting led by a mediator, which introduces the vocabulary of wine tasting and the differences between the Bordeaux appellations. Workshops on oenology are also available for those who want to learn more about tasting techniques.

The museum is easy to reach by tram, with stops at Chartrons and Camille Godard, and it is a short walk from the quays. Hours and tasting times are set by the museum, so check them in advance and book a tasting if you plan to attend one. A visit with a tasting usually takes an hour or two.

It suits wine lovers, beginners curious about Bordeaux, and travellers who want to see a less touristy quarter of the city. The Cité du Vin, the Place de la Bourse and the Capucins Market are good additions, and the Musée d'Aquitaine tells the wider history of the region.