Only a few days to go before the Sensory tasting journey Via Sensoria makes its return to the Cité du Vin! After a successful first edition, this original and intimate journey, in which sensory experiences and tastings meet in the heart of unique dreamlike spaces, returns from 26 March to 3 November. Sessions in French, English and Spanish will be offered every day to the Cité du Vin’s visitors, who will be invited in Via Sensoria to take a unique sensory journey As the seasons pass. Several new features have been added for the 2024 edition, including elements of sophrology to help explore their feelings even more deeply, a new selection of drinks to taste (wines and alcohol-free) and the addition of olfactory objects for each season. An activity accessible to all, including families and those who may not be wine lovers, to be discovered soon in Bordeaux!
An ever more sensorial experience
Designed by GEDEON Programmes and scenographer Sylvain Roca for the Cité du Vin, the Via Sensoria Sensory tasting journey is an artistic and digital creation in which visitors enjoy a sensory and intimate tasting experience, As the seasons pass. From spring to winter, from sunrise to sunset, visitors (no more than 15 in each group) take an hour-long stroll accompanied by a sommelier-guide through four pavilions that recreate the atmosphere of each season with images, sounds, lights, smells and materials. At each stage, a drink in keeping with the season is offered to unite the senses and give way to dreams and emotions. Far removed from a traditional wine-tasting, Via Sensoria reinvents tasting by giving priority to feelings and sensations. To take this approach even further and invite everyone to embark on their own sensory journey, the role of the sommelier-guide has been strengthened in the 2024 edition through the addition of sophrology. The teams have been trained to enrich their personal commentary and better support visitors as they explore their senses.
An experience like no other!
A completely new selection of drinks
While emotions are at the heart of Via Sensoria, tasting is not left behind! At each stage of the journey, visitors are offered a world wine or alcohol-free drink to match the season. For this new edition, the tasting programme has been completely revised, featuring four new wine regions: Italy with a Prosecco Superiore DOCG, Provence with a rosé wine, Australia with a red wine from the south of the country (Shiraz), and finally Bordeaux with a Sauternes or Barsac wine. Four original organic alcohol-free drinks from Maison Meneau® are also on offer, ranging from apple lavender fizz to kiwi nectar, from hibiscus elderflower iced tea to blueberry syrup. For the winter season, the tastings will be accompanied by Sarments du Médoc® chocolates from Mademoiselle de Margaux®, combining the intensity of cocoa with yuzu and ginger.
New features for an enhanced immersion
While sight, hearing and taste are already particularly stimulated in the journey, this new version of Via Sensoria is complemented with the addition of olfactory and staging features that further enhance visitor immersion through smell and touch. Each season thus has its own emblematic object and its own olfactory signature, created by the Canadian company Stimulation Déjà Vu®. Delicately and aesthetically staged, while respecting the poetry of the original journey, these objects diffuse natural scents in each pavilion, tailor-made to awaken a sense of familiarity, soothing and well-being in visitors. They will thus come across the delicate flowers and leaves of Spring (the scent of herbs, freshly cut grass and buds), while a flock of swallows carries the scent of Summer (the warmth of the sun’s rays, golden wheat). Hanging leaves, as if fallen from a tree, invite the visitor to discover the scent of Autumn (damp earth, forest floor, the scent of pumpkins and root vegetables) and finally, a more graphic mural composition diffuses the smells of Winter (an open fire, wood, a sugar shack). As for the staging, seats have been added to the autumn and winter pavilions to transport visitors even further into the heart of these seasons through touch. In Autumn, visitors are invited to sit on natural wooden seats made from real tree trunks, while in Winter, soft cushions have been installed so that they can snuggle up in a cosy atmos-phere.
