The Best Wine Museum at Chateauneuf-du-Pape
July 3rd, 2010 | Published in Wine | 1 Comment
It has been almost one year when I visited the small village on my way from Antibes to Arles. I just can´t help myself and to enjoy the opportunity to see the village which name is magic to wine lovers all around the world. Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
My first stop was the Brotte Wine Museum which was established in 1972 by Maison Brotte. The museum is located on the main road when you arrive to the village.
Maison Brotte was founded in 1931 by Charles Brotte and has been managed already by three generations of Brotte family. After succesful expansion in 1990s nowadays Brotte sells about 1.4 million bottles per year.
The museum which was reconstructed in year 2000 covers surface area of 500 m2. The most attractive exhibits you should not miss are the 4,000 liter wine barrel from 14th century and wood wine press dated back to 16th century.
The exhibition splits into four parts:
information about French concept of „Appellation d’Origine Controlée“ which guarantee the wine origins and of course its quality, information about the land, its magic which helps to save the sunshine and warms up the vineyards during the nights, section about the man and his hard work that enables to get the spirit of the country and feeling of hundreds years history in the wine from this region, information about grape varieties which can be used.
Interesting part of the museum is the glass wall, behind it you can see the bottling and packaging line of the Maison Brotte.
The whole tour finishes in wine cellar where you can taste the wines from Maison Brotte production and of course you can buy the bottle(s) as souvenir at very good prices. The offer of the wines is not limited to wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape but you can also buy Brotte’ s wines from other regions.
When you visit Provence, don’t miss your chance to see this wonderful museum with very friendly staff.
If you want to know more about Chateauneuf-du-Pape, generally French wines or you are planing wine tour in Provence or other French wine region, .
Miroslav Kucera is author of site about French wine www.aboutfrenchwine.com.
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:48 pm (#)
Nice brief and this publish helped me a lot in my college assignement.