Do More Than Sight See

Why travel to only see the world when you can also travel and pick up some new skills? Here are some unconventional travel experiences for you to try on your next sojourn out of the country.

- Neda Al-Asedi

BECOME A VIGNERON

Few things are more insightful for a wine drinker and connoisseur than a visit to a renowned winery to see how your favourite vintages get made. Winery tours are a dime a dozen when visiting any wine growing region, but how often do you get the chance to make your own wine from scratch, from blending right down to bottling?

Bespoke wine company Viniv offers a unique experience for those looking to forge a deeper connection to wine, by allowing the rare opportunity to walk right into the heart of the Bordeaux wine making region. The Viniv winery is located adjacent to Château Lynch-Bages, known for their red wines of the same name and for being one of eighteen cinquièmes crus (Fifth Growths) named in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Winemaking in Bordeaux is often strict business, with the community having to abide by rules of tradition, such as not allowing for mixing of grapes across properties. But Viniv members have free reign over how they blend their vintages, and access to all the vineyards in the region, allowing for picking of grapes across appellations and from both the left and right banks.

Viniv members are involved in the whole process from initial planning, to label design, right up to the final blend and aging of your wine. Along the way, a panel of experts from the surrounding châteaus are on hand to guide you and provide their expertise, including Daniel Llose, technical director at Château Lynch-Bages; Nicolas Labenne, head winemaker for Château Lynch-Bages and Château Ormes de Pez, as well as the legendary Eric Boissenot who consults at five of Bordeaux’s 1855 First Growth properties.