#WeeklyWineWrap: World's first wine theme park opens in France

You are now able to buy a round in Finland

The gist of it: Finland's centre-right government has agreed to free up the country's notoriously strict rules on the sale and advertising of alcohol, including the right to buy a round of drinks in most establishments. The biggest changes affect bars and restaurants. Drinkers will be able to buy more than one portion of alcohol at a time, order drinks to take home, and pay with Finnish credit cards (at the moment only credit cards issued abroad can be used). Bars and clubs will also be able to stay open until 4am without a special permit, and a ban on advertising happy hours will be lifted. Additionally, the Alko chain of state-owned off-licences will lose its monopoly on selling drinks stronger that 4.7% alcohol per volume, as the limit for corner shops will be raised to 5.5%. Read more here.

Bonus factoid: Finland may have been quite strict about the sale and marketing of alcohol within its borders, but there are other countries that take it to a further extreme. Here’s a list of 13 countries where you’ll have a hard time drinking a toast.

The French have opened a wine theme park!

The gist of it: It turns out that dreams do come true! The French have gone and done it again – the world now has ‘a city of wine’. The equivalent of an adult theme park that trades Mickey for Merlots and many, many other wines, La Cité du Vin opened in Bordeaux wine country on 1 June. Located just an hour's flight from Paris, this amusement park wants to teach you about the history and importance of wine. It boasts 20 themed areas and exhibits that interactively explain the culture and history of wine, a 250-seat auditorium for screenings and classes, a simulator boat ride that shows what it was like to be a maritime merchant sailing across the globe, and expert-led tasting sessions. Read more here.

Bonus factoid: As though the idea of a wine theme park wasn't awe-worthy enough, the architecture of the park itself demands a second glance. Created by architects Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières of XTU Architects, the park's design includes symbols of knotted vine stocks, wine turning in a glass, and the nearby Garonne River. The park's building spans 10 levels and is meant to appear as though it's flowing uninterrupted between its exterior and interior.

The list of South Africa’s most expensive wines has been updated

The gist of it: The most expensive bottle of wine you can currently buy in South Africa is Mont Destin's Destiny Shiraz at R18,000. True, you pay for the half-carat diamond set on the bottle in decorative wax, but without it the wine still goes for a cool R558 per bottle. The Destiny Diamond Collection features a 2006 Destiny Shiraz with half a carat diamond set in platinum and packaged in a special presentation case. Only six sets of these exceptional collector’s items are available. Other wineries on the list include 2016 Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival exhibitors Alto Estate and Bouchard Finlayson with, respectively, MPHS (a Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon blend) at R700 and Galpin Peak Pinot Noir Tete de Cuvee 2009 at R742. Read more here.

Bonus factoid: The most expensive bottle of wine sold to date went for a whopping $225,000. Read more here.

This week’s Weekly Wine Wrap-Up was brought to you by Juliet Cullinan Wines. The 26th annual Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival will be hosted on 12 and 13 July 2016 at Summer Place, Hyde Park. Tickets are available at Webtickets.
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