From trades and tools to aromas and grape varieties

400

items from the Klipfel collection

listening points

interactive experiences

In Colmar, capital of Alsace wines, the visit shines a light on the craftspeople of wine: winegrower, cooper, glassblower and cork maker. Their tools bear witness to their work: pruning knives, presses, planes, trestle, workbench. So do their creations: barrels, roemers, ruby glasses and the famous Alsatian bottle.

Room after room, the audio guide tells you the story of the Alsatian vineyard, its folklore and its traditions. You take your time picking out the aromas of the Alsatian grape varieties, then comes the tasting of wines from the Domaine viticole de la Ville de Colmar, or of a grape juice that echoes their notes. Before you leave, you design your own label and discover the last surprises of the visit.

The village of Riquewihr surrounded by golden vines in autumn, on the Alsace Wine Route

THE ALSACE VINEYARD

Since the first vines were planted in Alsace nearly two thousand years ago, every plot on these hillsides has revealed a different soil and given a wine of its own.

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Reconstructed cooper's workshop at the museum: workbench, antique tools and explanatory panels

THE TRADES OF WINE

The winegrower makes the wine and raises it; the cooper shapes the wood, the glassblower and the cork maker prepare the wine for its next journey.

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Visitor raising a glass of white wine in front of the museum's tasting taps

AROMAS AND TASTING

The aroma wheel trains your nose, then our virtual sommelier introduces you to tasting and gives you the keys to visiting the cellars of Alsace.

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Three children playing the touchscreen harvest game in front of the illustrated vine wall, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

FOR FAMILIES

The children's trail leads younger visitors from game to game. At the end of the visit, each one leaves with a reward before setting off to explore the vines.

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The Alsace vineyard, its terroir and its grape varieties

From Marlenheim to Thann, 170 kilometres of vines. You discover its terroir: what the soils are made of, which grape varieties thrive in them, and how the Alsatian wine presses changed.

Rows of vines on a hillside, backlit in the low light of late afternoon

The terroir

Between the Vosges massif and the Rhine plain, the vineyard rests on three broad groups: granite and sandstone from the mountains, clay and limestone from the hills, then alluvium from the plain. Ancient fractures broke this land into pieces, and most wine-growing villages count four or five different soils.

Two visitors with audio guides in front of the cogwheel mechanical wine press, at the Museum of Alsace Wines in Colmar

The wine presses

Six types of press followed one another in Alsace, from the lever press, used for a thousand years, to the pneumatic press. Two imposing presses fill the room: the largest measures 3.70 metres long; the other, with a central screw, bears the Klipfel coat of arms.

Hand resting on the interactive table of Alsace grape varieties, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

The grape varieties

Riesling, gewurztraminer, sylvaner, muscat, pinot blanc, pinot gris and pinot noir are the main grape varieties of Alsace; chasselas and auxerrois complete the list of authorised varieties. Pinot noir is the only red: nine wines out of ten are white. Muscat, for its part, is drunk dry here.

Visitors around the recreated vine plot, with vat and antique tools, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

The City of Colmar's vineyard

Colmar has a vineyard of its own: the Domaine viticole de la Ville de Colmar, born of an institute founded in 1895, to which Chrétien Oberlin gave the five hundred grape varieties he had brought together. It is the wine of this estate that you will taste at the end of the visit.

The trades of wine

Many trades are needed to bring wine from the vine to your glass. The museum invites you to follow the story of each one, to see how they have changed, and which of them are disappearing. Their tools have remained: the Klipfel house, in Barr, entrusted us with its collection, now on display here in Colmar.

Visitor leaning on the railing above the vaulted brick cellar, with its large casks and its winegrower, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

The winegrower

The winegrower raises his wine the way one raises a child. He visits it every day: he measures the alcohol level and the acidity, and tops up the barrel as the level drops, so that air never touches the wine. Until it is ready.

The cooper

Only two or three coopers are left in Alsace; there were several hundred at the end of the 18th century. You will see one of them, Lionel Berger, filmed at the Écomusée d'Alsace: the oak resists, fire and water soften it, and the craftsman's hand knows just how far the wood can bend.

Lit display case of Alsatian bottle shapes, including the flute d'Alsace

The glassblower

Glassmakers lived in the forest: they needed wood, sand, water and ferns, and their workshops moved on as soon as materials ran short. At Wildenstein, in the Kruth valley, the flûte d'Alsace was blown — the slender bottle whose proportions are still set by decree.

Antique green cast-iron bottle corking machine, with a bag of corks

The cork maker

A cork oak is stripped only every ten to fifteen years, between 15 June and 15 August. Its bark then dries for a year in the open air before becoming a cork. In Alsace, it often bears a stork or a half-timbered house, and the winegrower's name along the side.

Old gnarled grapevine with green leaves and grape clusters, a symbol of Alsace winemaking at the Vino Storia wine museum in Colmar

Iron-hooped oak barrel with red and white grapes, illustrating wine ageing at the Vino Storia wine museum in Colmar

The aromas and tasting of Alsace wines

Recognising an aroma means waking a memory. Train your nose on the Alsatian grape varieties; you will find them again at the tasting.

The aromas

Guess what you are smelling: honey, grape berry, citrus, smoky notes… The memory of smells is built like any other. Then find those aromas in a grape variety: lychee and rose in gewurztraminer, white flowers in riesling, cherry in pinot noir. It is up to you to find others.

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Couple of visitors raising a glass of Alsace white wine during the tasting, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

Food and wine pairings

Dry muscat with asparagus, riesling with sauerkraut, gewurztraminer with munster: in the kitchen, two chefs run through the pairings. And the kugelhopf is flavoured with gewurztraminer marc.

The tasting

Pour yourself a glass, riesling, pinot gris or gewurztraminer, and follow our virtual sommelier: she teaches you to read the wine, its colour, its legs down the glass, then to smell it, aerate it and taste it. Nothing stops you from starting again with another variety. Those who do not drink alcohol do the same, with grape juice.

Close-up of two glasses of white wine brought together for a toast, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

The tasting

Do you need to know about wine already?

No. What you mainly learn is to put words to what you smell: aroma for a young wine, bouquet for a wine that has aged. The sommelier would tell you there are as many good wines as there are good palates.

Visitor nosing her glass of white wine during the tasting, at the Museum of Alsace Wines in Colmar

Do you need to know about wine already?

For families, the children's trail

Children follow the visit with you, but not in the same way. They have their own guide, their own games at every stage, and a surprise to take home!

The children's trail

From the age of three, children have an audio guide all of their own: Lisela, the museum's mascot, tells them about the same rooms as you, at their level. They move at their own pace, having fun.

Child scanning a listening point on the trail with an audio guide, at the Vino Storia museum in Colmar

Young girl playing the harvest challenge on the children's trail touchscreen

The games

Harvest the grapes then crush them in the trough, stack the barrels in the winegrower's cellar, bottle the wine, smell the aromas — and, at the end, taste several grape juices.

The apprentice winegrower's diploma

At the end of the trail, everyone picks their background and their drawing, writes their name — and leaves with their apprentice winegrower's diploma. As for Lisela, she says goodbye in Alsatian: "Bis bàll!"

A woman and a girl pedalling the museum's tricycle in front of the Alsace vineyard landscape

The ride through the vineyard

Before leaving the museum of Alsace wines, a foretaste of the vineyard: young and old alike, climb aboard our delivery trike and watch the landscapes roll by. This really is where your discovery of the Wine Route begins.

Plan and book

Your visit to Vino Storia in Colmar

Opening hours

Open daily from 10 am to 6 pm, last entry at 5 pm.

Visit duration

Allow around 90 minutes for the full tour.

Tickets

Book online to avoid waiting at the entrance.
The museum is included in the Colmar City Pass.

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Vino StoriaTHE MUSEUM OF ALSACE WINES IN COLMAR