Monday, October 14th was held at Bordeaux the 11th Best of Wine Tourism night, during which were awarded the most outstanding wine tourism initiatives in Gironde.
Best of tourism night with Winetourbooking
Encourage visit in Bordeaux estates is not an impossible wish and many are making significant efforts to do so. Every year, the wine and tourism sectors are keen to award them with fully deserved awards.
Beforehand, in order to waste any suspicion from Bordeaux, it’s important to know that Best of Wine Tourism prizes are not an exception in Gironde. Indeed, it’s also known in 9 others famous area, also to award there vineyards : in Bilbao (Rioja, Spain), Cape Town (Cape Winelands, South Africa), Christchurch (South Island), Florence (Italia), Mayence (Germany), Mendoza (Argentina), Porto (Portugal) and San Fransisco (Nappa Valey, California). Those Best of, awarded each year all over the world, represent a guarantee of excellence regarding wineries hospitality.
Let us return to this evening ceremony! The event gathered nearly 400 people in the beautiful setting of the Chamber of Commerce of Bordeaux, at Place de la Bourse. To be honest, we felt like a moment in a Caesars ceremony, in a less glitz and more casual version! In the same way that Antoine de Caunes, Michel Cardoze lead the evening as meteorologist of ceremony taking the temperature of each laureate on stage!
Weinberg vineyards
The rules distinguished six categories being honored, representing six components to get better wine lovers in the wineries: architecture, art and culture, innovation, environmental practice, accommodation and wine tourism services. A total of 18 were honored by the jury composed of all components of the wine tourism sector.
Let us now attempt to analyze these results. First, we observe that the graduated properties come from many designations, proof that the dynamism in this area occurs throughout the vineyard.
Moreover, we cannot fail to be impressed by the wide range of wine tourism initiatives in the estates. Were rewarded:
Visit castles in Bordeaux with Winetourbooking
– Architectural renovations to recover the former glory to certain properties (Chateau Fourcas Hostens…).
– Cultural initiatives, to focus on the quality of tourism more than mass tourism (Chateau Gravas, Chateau Montlau).
– Hospitality and reception initiatives: the idea is that the passion for wine and vineyards is a part of a broader lifestyle concept (Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion, Chateau d’Arche, Chateau de Ferrand).
– Environmental practices that go well beyond a trend and reflect the need to preserve nature, while educating the wine tourist (Chateau Larose Trintaudon, Chateau Vieux Mougnac).
– Accommodation: in this category, we are glad that chateau du tertre has been put forward as the chateau somewhat eccentric of “the main road of Médoc”. It’s worth a visit! However, as was mentioned, too many chateaux from Médoc still practice a kind of “winter break” regarding visits to the property, so that is all sector suffering and thus discouraging initiatives…
– Wine tourism services, is open to associations or business companies. That explain that the website Wine Tour Booking received a Best Of, to reward its service reservations online to book visits in the vineyard. Praised not only by Internet users, many properties already use this management tool reservation. For proof, within the 12 chateaux winners, therefore considered at the forefront of the wine tourism, 6 of them have already joined our platform. The Gold Best Of has been awarded to the sumptuous Chateau de Rouillac.
We could support for a long time each of these successful initiatives… Generosity is the master-word to hold of this evening, cited besides many times by the winners. Indeed, this generosity displayed by all the laureates is what makes all these projects to encourage visits in our beautiful Bordeaux vineyards. Congratulations!
