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The Saint-Emilion Maison du Vin is « THE » spot for Saint-Emilion wine connoisseurs. Led by passionate people, you will have high-end advices, for bottles sold at property price. A guided tour with Bruno Dumery, director of the Maison du Vin.
Bruno, what is the Saint-Emilion Maison du Vin ?
The Maison du Vin is an official entity linked to the Saint-Emilion Wine council. It is meant to promote our appellation’s winemakers. Today, we have 250 winemakers that are part of the Maison du Vin, with over 450 different wines. We also have a wide range of wine-related items : corkscrew, coasters, sommelier knives, decanters, glasses and sommelier aprons. These items allow us to offer visitors, everything that relates to wine. To enter in the world of wine, we also have a permanent exhibit with 36 pictures showing the winemaking work.
Bruno, can you talk to us about the Ecole du Vin …
The Ecole du Vin was established in 1991. It’s located on the first floor of the Maison du Vin. Its purpose is to teach wine tasting. We have over 1200 visitors every year. Different wine tastings options are available. During summer, we offer wine tasting introductions that last 90 minutes. For specific wine tastings, we can go from 1h to a full day. We also have a « discovery » formula that lets you taste 6 Saint-Emilion wines.
The most popular tasting offer is the « assemblage ». Visitors taste separatly merlot, cabernet-franc and cabernet-sauvignon. Then they do an blend of these three different grape varieties with a pipette and a test tube. People usually like this experiment. At the Saint-Emilion Maison du Vin, we also have a table where people can sample different aromas. It’s a fun time for children and adults. Families can learn more about the typical aromas of Saint-Emilion wines.
I personally really like to teach wine tasting. When I started working here, I was really interested by the wine product, but I didn’t really know it that well. Therefore, I went to pass the DUAD diploma (Diplôme Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Dégustation). My biggest professionnal pride is to have finished head of my class, full of agronomist engineers and oenologists!
Why come to the Saint-Emilion Maison du Vin and nowhere else?
For many reasons! The price aspect is obvious. Today, we’re going through difficuul times and people are looking for the best quality / price ratio. Here, we offer wines at property prices. It’s an important aspect but not the only one! In the village of Saint-Emilion, 70 stores sell wine. Some salespeople change every year and are not all aware of the novelty in the appellations. Here, we have a team that has been here for a few years. I, myself, have been part of this entity since 1989. We know the appellation very well and give our visitors advices according to their expectations, especially regarding food and wine pairing. Some clients call us, after coming to the shop, to get some advice. It’s like an after-sales service!
Bruno, what are your projects for the Saint-Emilion Maison du Vin?
We’re working on a complete make-over of our reception desk, in order to install a second cash register. The goal is to offer a more comfortable setting for our visitors and buyers especially during summer time. This make-over will allow us to create a wine tasting area for winemakers. They will be able to present their products every afternoon. These wine meetings have a great success with our customers and we wish to have them year long.
We are also thinking about having a wine bar…
