Cité du Vin takes stock as it enters 10th anniversary year

By Oliver Catchpole

Published: 19 January, 2026

As it approaches its 10th anniversary, the Cité du Vin has released figures looking back over 2025, a year in which it welcomed 390,000 visitors of 170 different nationalities.

This brings the total number of visitors to the Cité since it opened – one of the most popular cultural attractions in Bordeaux – to 3.5 million.

Visits overall were down by approximately 6% in 2025 (when compared with 2024), which the museum attributed to a “less favourable” international and national economic climate and the gradual reintroduction of air links to European destinations following Ryanair’s withdrawal from Bordeaux in October 2024.

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However, it cited large local turnout at tasting events and workshops, successful corporate events and enthusiasm for its Boutique (a 'wine-based concept store') where sales were up 2.5%, as positive signs for the future.

Philippe Massol, MD of the Cité du Vin, commented: “2026 will be a year of celebration and sharing at the Cité du Vin, and we hope that the public will join us in celebrating this symbolic anniversary.”

Looking at its cultural offerings, the Cité du Vin said that its Permanent Exhibition welcomed nearly 361,000 visitors in 2025 and almost 24,000 attended the third edition of the Via Sensoria Sensory tasting (between April and November).

The daytime tasting workshops also attracted more than 17,000 participants.

Additionally, the museum’s cultural programme that targets locals attracted 3,000 participants to the tasting workshops, and 5,200 to various meetings and evening events.

The majority of visitors to the museum were international (55%) coming from Spain (9.9% of visitors), the US (8.3%) or the UK (7.2%), followed by Germans (6%) and Italians (4.4%).

Of the remaining visitors, 28% were French tourists, 7% were day trippers and 10% were Bordeaux residents.

Last year, the Cité du Vin earned a Net Promoter Score – a metric for measuring customer loyalty – of 69.8 (up one point from 2024), suggesting a high overall level of customer satisfaction with the museum.

The Cité du Vin first opened its doors on 1 June 2016, and has since established itself as a major cultural and tourist attraction dedicated to the “universal, living heritage of wine”.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the museum will be putting on a series of events throughout the year, including a temporary photo exhibition called “Around the World in 50 Vineyards”, a Bordeaux wines edition of the Via Sensoira sensory tasting journey and a symposium called “Does wine have a future without culture?”.

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