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Wine Tributaries John Koetzner & Tim Hayes Photos by Margie Koetzner
The early displays invite you to experience ancient winemaking and a couple French appellations. Then a glass elevator with small bubbling lights attracts visitors to a second floor and Champagne. Each room has its own unique twist on the region and its viticulture, and each has its own wild take on the region in general. For example, the Australian display is done in a mock airliner, with only the tray tables missing from the seat in front of you. A film talks about the growing regions, and growers talk about grape growing.
Even regions that are mentioned infrequently in wine publications such as India are represented at Vinopolis. So the tour has incredible value in educating people about the breadth that winemaking has had in the history and lives of people from the majority of cultures.
Yet not everything at Vinopolis is based on hearing the tour. There are numerous visual displays that are self-explanatory such as a grapevine that shows the taproot and the canes. Then, part of the fun comes with sniffing olfactory displays where one can smell the aromas that are associated with Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. These add to the whole experience even before one takes a sip of wine.
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At the core of the tour is a headset that has four hours of tour
information. Visitors may choose from six different languages and decide how
much of the tour they want to experience. Once the unit is turned on, it
automatically catapults one into the new region when a new room in the tour
is entered. If you walk into the Burgundy room, for example, a one-minute
background commentary on Burgundy automatically begins. The ruins of a
Citroen are center stage. There are numbered displays that allow one to pick
and choose what you would like to learn simply punching in the number of the
display.
California is represented with old-fashioned 35-millimeter cameras, making a
Hollywood connection. There is a nostalgic charm about when one watches the
information about California viticulture. Although the U.S. is not
represented by its incredible wine industry presence, a map shows all the
growing regions in the U.S. that are currently in wine production.
According to Vaughn-Arbuckle, and it was confirmed during our visit, the
most popular attraction is the Italy room that has Vespa motor scooters. Each
scooter invites visitors to sit on it and view a rear-projection video that
allows one to watch a virtual tour of Italy's growing regions in the
windshield. No helmets are needed. Once again, the headset becomes a crucial
part of the tour as it provides the narration.