Wine tourism, or oenotourisme, is a trendy subject in France these days. La Vigne, one of the professional wine magazines recently had a special issue on it. There is a national wine tourism prize. There is even a government sponsored wine tourism committee to promote wine tourism. It is seen as one of the things that wineries need to get involved in to get our of la crise.
There was recently a wine tourism conference, Les assises de l’oenotourisme, in Thau, not far from Montpellier in the Languedoc region. One of the organisers were WineTourismInFrance.com.
BKWine was one of the invited speakers to talk on the subject of how to make wine tourism happen. It was a great occasion to meet several wine makers and people in the tourism industry.
It was also a good reason to go to one of the better restaurants in Marseillan, Le Glacier.
the whole region around L’Etang de Thau is certainly a very interesting travel destination. They have some nice wines (Picpoul de Pinet – we had an excellent Chateau Pinet – Muscat de Frontignan and other). But their most famous speciality are the oysters!
L’Etang de Thau is one of Frances most important sources for fresh oysters. You can imagine what the restaurants serve for starter…!