World’s largest wine museum unveiled

The Italian city of Verona is to be home to the world’s biggest wine museum. 

Verona also hosts to one of the wine trade’s best-known industry fairs, Vinitaly. 

The new MuVin has been inspired by the Cite du Vin in Bordeaux and Edinburgh’s Scotch Whisky Experience, Drinks Business reported.

Enrico Corsi, the head of The Museo del Vino project, said: “I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, years ago, and there I had the opportunity to visit the popular Scotch Whisky Experience. 

 “I wondered why something similar could not be done with wine in Italy. I realised that we did not have anything comparable in our country, apart from a bunch of smaller private initiatives.”

The MuVin complex will cover 215,000 square feet of land and feature wine tastings, educational activities and an “experiential path” that will take visitors on a journey through the history of wine, its cultural impact, production methods, and how to pair it with food.

It is a €50m project, and one Corsi hopes will tap into the influx of tourists who flock to the region each year.

“Clearly the museum will rely on the huge number of people who already visit the area, including some 32 million tourists who go to Lake Garda every year, as well as 3.8 million who visit Verona, plus everything else happening in the region,” he said.

 “Needless to say, Verona’s numerous exhibitions will benefit us with additional visitors too. This will be Italy’s largest museum dedicated to wine, it will be the country’s main hub for enotourism and will also have an international scope.”

The MuVin is set for completion in 2026, a year in which Italy will host the Winter Olympics. 

Italy is the world’s largest producer of wine, with 50 million hectolitres recorded in 2021 by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. It has also long been a destination for wine tourism.