Wooden wine map of France

No chart, no frame, no panel

France cut in wood and mounted straight onto the wall, 60 cm across, with the vineyards raised on it and a separate badge for each wine region placed around it. There is nothing behind the map; the wall is the paper. That is the difference between this and our panels, and it changes how the map reads: a framed chart hangs among other framed things, this is an object on a wall, and it needs the wall to itself.

Thirteen badges, each shaped like something from the trade

An ice bucket for Champagne, a corkscrew for Lorraine, a glass for Alsace, a barrel for Bourgogne, a vine leaf shared by the Jura and Savoie-Bugey, a jug for Beaujolais, a bottle for the Vallée de la Loire, a basket of grapes for Provence-Corse, a castle for Languedoc-Roussillon, a round barrel end for Bordeaux, leaves for the Sud-Ouest, a badge of its own for the Vallée du Rhône, and Corsica as its own island. Each badge is engraved with the region name and the grape varieties grown there, so the map is a reference as well as a picture.

The base is engraved too: the wine villages and vignobles sit on the wood between the départements and the towns – Volnay, Pommard, Meursault and Chablis in Burgundy, the Médoc, Graves, Entre-Deux-Mers and Sauternais around Bordeaux, Bergerac, Cahors and Marmande in the Sud-Ouest.

Where the badges go is your decision. Placed tight against the coastline the map stays compact; spread wider it fills considerably more wall than its 60 cm suggests. Lay the whole arrangement out on the floor before any tape goes on.

The relief is yours to build

The map arrives as flat boards. You press the country out, then the vineyard pieces, which come on their own boards already taped: peel the backing and set each one onto the map following the outlines engraved as guides, and Bordeaux, the Loire, Burgundy and the Rhône rise off the base in their own tones. It is a small, satisfying piece of work, and the reason the box says "à assembler soi-même".

Mounting

Then short strips of the double-sided tape go on the back of each piece and it goes up, outer pieces first, badges last. Allow an hour or two. Nothing is drilled and nothing is permanent, though moving it later means fresh tape.

Wall, board, or frame

It can be mounted directly on a wall, on a board, or inside a frame of your own, as several of our photos show, which contains the badges and turns the piece into something closer to a panel. If you want that finished look without the work, the white and beige panels are the same map already framed.

France or Italy

The wooden wine map of Italy uses the same system for the other great wine country, with its twenty regions and badges shaped like jugs, glasses and corks.

One honest limitation

Decorative rather than authoritative. Vineyard boundaries are simplified to what can be cut at this scale and the smallest designations are grouped. Someone who knows Burgundy well will find omissions.