If France, to the rosbifs across the Channel, is synonymous with wine, life on a French vineyard appears to be la vie en rose: waking up to hillsides decorated with rows of greenery heavy with grapes and spending evenings sipping a glass as the sun goes down. That’s a fantasy, because running a vineyard is really hard work. However, this is one dream well within reach, with wine hotels offering all the fun and none of the graft. The landscapes and local culture can be captivating too, whether you’re as far north as Champagne or as south as Provence or even Corsica — with the likes of Burgundy and Bordeaux in between.
And where there is wine, there are talented chefs too. You may find them at a château with a luxurious spa and pool; or at a simple guesthouse where the table d’hôte set menu is served without fuss at a communal table and typically joined by the host’s own wines. For those seeking something more unusual, there’s the joys of quirky accommodation: treehouses overlooking the vines, luxury pods or large barrels with beds. These are the best vineyard hotels to visit in France, so you can discover its incredible wines right from the source.
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1. Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, Champagne
£££ | SPA | POOL | Best for luxury weekenders
This is more than just a hotel, thanks to a Michelin-starred restaurant, the superb spa with indoor and outdoor pools, and a long list of champagnes by the glass in a bar with panoramic views. You’ll find it amid vineyards at Champillon, not far from the picturesque medieval village of Hautvillers — where the monk Dom Pérignon supposedly invented the world’s favourite sparkling wine. Borrow an electric bike that makes easy work of the vine-covered slopes, or ask the concierge to organise a bespoke guided tour and tasting session at champagne houses such as Leclerc Briant, Billecart-Salmon and Philipponnat.
2. Château de St Aubin, Maison Prosper Maufoux, Burgundy
££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for swimming amid the vines
St Aubin, in the southern part of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or wine region, is a less famous area than Meursault or Chassagne-Montrachet, even though it’s between the two and also produces superb wine. At last it has the accommodation to match. This splendid white château has been reimagined as luxurious accommodation, with four double rooms overlooking the vines, a heated pool, tastings and cellar tours, and an excellent breakfast that the host sources daily at market.
3. Château St Pierre de Serjac, Languedoc
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for a walk with a wine expert
Driving up the avenue amid the vines to this gracious mansion, terrace restaurant and pool just beyond, it’s easy to picture its former incarnation as a château pinardier, a grand house built in the 19th century for locals who had become wealthy selling pinard (a table wine), or plonk. How times have changed: nearby sub-appellations including Faugères, Picpoul de Pinet, Pic St Loup or Terrasses du Larzac now have sterling reputations for excellent wine. This 200-acre estate at Puissalicon, near Béziers, offers tastings and makes a good base for further forays. Walk or pedal on an estate bike through the vines to one of several local wineries, or in summer take one of the small-group guided walking tours: a scenic way to learn more about Languedoc wines.
4. Château Capitoul, Languedoc
£££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for soaking up the Med
Château Capitoul is the ideal base for exploring the wine appellation of La Clape. Although to do that you’ll have to drag yourself away from your luxurious villa, the spa and the terrace with panoramic views over the vines, woods and olive trees to a shimmering lagoon. There’s a gastronomic restaurant that celebrates the wines of the entire Mediterranean region, and a fishing village (with a beach) five miles in one direction and the Roman city of Narbonne six miles in the other.
5. La Maison d’Estournel, Bordeaux
£££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for privileged access to Grand Cru Bordeaux wines
The legendary Cos d’Estournel, a second-growth Grand Cru according to the 1855 classification that still pertains in Bordeaux, includes 91 scenic hectares of vines, two-thirds of them cabernet sauvignon. It surrounds a winery built by the man they nicknamed the Maharajah of St Estèphe because his passion for India led him to create a building inspired by the Taj Mahal. Adjoining the estate is the maharajah’s former home, now sumptuously refurbished as a luxury 14-room hotel and restaurant. It’s an elegant escape surrounded by nature and set back from the estuary just over an hour’s drive northwest of Bordeaux.
6. La Bastide de Marie, Provence
£££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for bucolic appeal
This 18th-century Provençal farmhouse, refurbished with rustic elegance, brings the experience of deep countryside. Among vines, olive and cypress trees at Ménerbes, it lies within the Luberon regional park yet is still only about an hour’s drive from Avignon, or an hour and a half to Marseille and the Mediterranean coast. The 57-acre estate is a great base for exploring the Luberon wineries, the closest of which is Domaine de Marie, which gives cellar tours and tastings of its red, rosé and white wines. Amid the picturesque surroundings are two pools: an ideal place for a dip before dinner on a terrace with beautiful views.
7. Les Clefs, Château Troplong Mondot, Bordeaux
££ | TASTINGS | Best for farm-to-fork cuisine with a view
The highest altitude wine estate in Bordeaux, Château Troplong Mondot houses guests at “the Keys”, which offers just four rooms and suites set in the heart of the vineyards. It feels incredibly intimate, with shuttered windows and climbing roses providing the perfect backdrop for a glass of wine alfresco. The restaurant, Les Belles Perdrix, holds a Michelin star, but although each dish is exquisitely presented, it’s difficult to drag your eyes away from the view — a panorama over the vineyard. And it’s not just wine that’s produced on site: be sure to pick up a jar of honey made on the estate too.
8. Villa la Coste, Château la Coste, Provence
£££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for art lovers
Between Aix-en-Provence and the Luberon sits an extraordinary estate, dreamt up by the property magnate Patrick McKillen. Château la Coste is a winery with 300 acres of vines, the luxurious Villa la Coste, and the more informal Auberge. Between them, they have casual and fine-dining restaurants from pizzas to the top chef Francis Mallman’s Argentinian cuisine and a one-star outlet from Hélène Darroze. Buildings here are designed by a host of star architects and include an art centre by Tadao Ando, a winery conceived by Jean Nouvel (Jean-Michel Wilmotte has converted its predecessor to an exhibition space), and other spaces by Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano. Then there are the high-profile artworks to match: Alexander Calder, Andy Goldsworthy and Louise Bourgeois are all represented. When your thirst for culture is sated, there’s the estate’s biodynamic wine to try on a two-hour tasting session.
9. Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey Lalique, Sauternes
££ | TASTINGS | Best for a sense of grandeur
Parts of this vast castle, with its crenellated walls, date from the 13th century, but the date that resonates is 1618, when Lord Peyraguey first planted vines. Today, the 44 acres of vineyards produce the magical sweet wine called sauternes, and the château’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant takes its inspiration from that extraordinary liquid — although with 350,000 bottles, nobody is limited to the local stuff. The decor, meanwhile, channels the great glass designer and jeweller René Lalique, with furnishings, chandeliers and art that hark back to his 1920s heyday. There is no pool or spa, but those spectacular vineyards, and the chef Jérôme Schilling’s fabulous dishes, more than compensate.
10. Como le Montrachet, Burgundy
££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for luxe village life
Burgundy has had to wait a long time for the kind of hotel its world-famous wines deserve, but here it is at last: a village inn, upgraded to plush accommodation in jewel-bright colours in a series of white-stone buildings around the main square in Puligny-Montrachet. There’s a pool in the grounds beyond the terrace, and behind the French windows lies a fabulous restaurant. Here under gigantic globe-shaped light fixtures, superb dishes make good use of local fish and meat, all carefully designed to showcase the dazzling wine list. And the vines of the prestigious Côte d’Or wines are just a scenic stroll away.
11. Château de Bagnols, Beaujolais
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for exploring Beaujolais
Beaujolais deserves more love: squeezed between the Rhône and Burgundy, it is underestimated as a wine and as a beautiful wine region. This 13th-century castle, with the largest gothic fireplace in France, was immaculately restored by Helen Hamlyn, wife of the publishing magnate Lord Hamlyn, to a modern version of medieval finery. It is now a member of the Relais & Châteaux group and makes a great base for exploring Beaujolais — an adventure that can start with a hike through the vineyards just beyond its ramparts. There’s a fine-dining restaurant and a café in the inner courtyard, a spa and wine tastings. The staff can organise all sorts of local tours, by car, bike or on foot, and the delicious delights of Lyon are 17 miles away.
12. Château de Nazelles, Loire Valley
£ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for an affordable escape
Less than two miles from Amboise, which has one of the great royal châteaux of the Loire Valley, sits a 16th-century iteration that is more like a village. Rooms are beamed and others carved from the rock, with a billiards room and a swimming pool that has also been dug out of that ever-present stone. Here, the choice is between the great châteaux — five of the most beautiful, including Chambord and Chenonceau, are an easy drive east — and the vineyards. Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Louis, two great white wine appellations, are less than 30 minutes away to the west, en route to Tours. And there can’t be many places with a more appropriate address for wine-lovers: the château sits on Rue Tue-La-Soif (Thirst-Killer Street).
13. Les Sources de Caudalie, Bordeaux
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for a luxe spa break
Daniel and Florence Cathiard, the owners of renowned Bordeaux estate Château Smith Haut Lafitte, have two daughters. Alice runs their hotels and Mathilde came up with the idea for beauty products that use grapes and vines — Caudalie is now a global brand. The Cathiards, former champion skiers, are clearly winners in every sense. This gorgeous retreat is their original hotel. It has rooms and suites decorated luxuriously in rich, earthy tones, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant with an exceptional wine list, a wine bar and the more casual La Table du Lavoir. The superb spa includes vinotherapy treatments and a natural hot water bath channelled from 540m underground.
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14. Hôtel Crillon le Brave, Provence
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££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for classic Provence
This hotel near Mont Ventoux, surrounded by the vineyards of the Rhône and the Vaucluse, is actually a former village: a collection of a dozen buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries in golden stone. Among them you’ll find an excellent restaurant with a terrace and a swimming pool beyond, plus airy rooms and suites with Provençal floor tiles and spectacular views of the mountain. Tear yourself away from that restaurant, the spa in a former stables and those views, then borrow a bike and cycle along warm roads, perfumed with herbs, to a nearby vineyard. Just remember that wineries in these parts tend to be atop steep hills.
15. Château Cordeillan-Bages, Bordeaux
££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for top-class pours
Despite the appellation’s many prestigious classed growths (premier cru, deuxième cru etc), there weren’t many tourists showing up in Pauillac until Jean-Michel Cazes took over the family estate in the early 1970s. By the time he died in 2023, aged 88, he had renovated the entire village of Bages, including his châteaux Lynch-Bages and Ormes de Pez, and founded this beautiful 28-room Relais & Châteaux hotel, with its heated pool, works of art and designer furniture. The restaurant, Café Lavinal, is a few steps away in the village, but don’t let the word café fool you: the products are local, the dishes delicious and the wine list runs to 1,800 top-tier bottles.
16. Baumanière, Provence
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for gourmands
Open since 1945, this is one of the most beautiful hotels in the Alpilles region — perhaps even in France. Beneath dramatic white cliffs, its buildings are surrounded by vines, olive trees and perfumed brush, and there’s a pool, a spa and a restaurant with three Michelin stars. Some of the 53 bedrooms are wallpapered, in others the stone walls are exposed; many have terraces and all are decorated with understated elegance. The wine cellar, a collection begun when the hotel opened, is extraordinary, with more than 50,000 bottles including the greatest wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. For those who prefer their sugar unfermented, there is also a chocolaterie on site. The hotel can organise tastings at nearby wineries, such as a 45-minute visit (in English) of Château Romanin.
17. Domaine Tarbouriech, Occitania
£ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for rustic-chic vibes
At the ancient village of Marseillan, on France’s Mediterranean coast, between broad Languedoc vineyards and the lovely Etang de Thau lagoon, this 15-room hotel is fashioned from an 18th-century holiday home and its adjoining wine storehouse. Alongside the pool and spa with sauna and steam room, there is an oyster farm. These delicious molluscs are just the most local of the products offered in the two restaurants (and used for treatments in the spa) — unless you count the biodynamically farmed vegetables from the owners’ kitchen garden. Walk or cycle (electric bikes are available) to their tasting room beside the sea, or head in the other direction: the popular white wine Picpoul de Pinet is made just a few miles inland. There are lots of wineries nearby, including Domaine de Belle Mare, where a tasting of three wines is free.
18. Le Château Réal, Bordeaux
£ | POOL | Best for home-from-home appeal
The Médoc is the most renowned wine region in the world: those flat vineyards stretching back from the Gironde estuary produce Bordeaux’s classed growths. Château Réal, a symmetrical pale stone guesthouse built by an official who served under Napoleon, has six individually rented rooms plus a refurbished farmhouse for eight friends; everyone shares the pool. There is no formal restaurant but platters from local producers are available in the evenings, and the farmhouse has its own kitchen. The property has been sensitively updated, with Provençal floor tiles, wooden beams above, and that estuary and its vines beyond the windows. Bikes are available to rent to get a little closer to the resulting wines.
19. Château de Valmer, Provence
£££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for beach breaks
This 15-acre organic wine estate and 44-room Relais & Châteaux hotel is just outside the charming village of La Croix Valmer and only eight minutes’ walk from a private beach (where they have a second hotel), although the pool and well-appointed spa are even closer. In addition to the comfortable accommodation in what used to be a bastide, or country house, there are a couple of spectacular treehouses and a two-bedroom villa. The restaurant has a Michelin star, helped no doubt by access to a kitchen garden full of organic vegetables — and, of course, its rosé wine. There are complimentary wine tastings from Wednesday to Sunday (2pm-7pm) and, while it’s hard to remember in this peaceful spot shaded by palm trees, just down the road is the glamour of St Tropez.
20. Château de Mercuès, Lot Valley
££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for historic stays
Six miles from the medieval village of Cahors, on a hilltop above the Lot River, is a proper castle — a real one, with turrets and a drawbridge. This is where seven centuries of bishops used to come to relax with a bottle of cahors from their own vineyards. Now it’s a 30-room hotel owned by the winemaker Georges Vigouroux, one decorated with respect for both history and comfort: rich colours, parquet floors, marble bathrooms. There’s a bistro and a renowned fine-dining restaurant, beauty treatments and wine tastings. Be sure to visit the château’s ancient underground cellars, and learn about the region’s “black wine” — rich reds made from the malbec grape.
21. La Verrière, Rhône
£ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for a sustainable sentiment
In this glorious part of the Rhône, in addition to making superb Chêne Bleu wines, Xavier and Nicole Rolet have turned a 9th-century building into a five-room eco-retreat. When not rented in its entirety, it can be a B&B for wine lovers looking for a little R&R — Rhône and relaxation. There’s an outdoor pool, tennis and pétanque, as well as tastings. Table d’hôte suppers make use of the orchard, vegetable garden, olive trees and beehives, to say nothing of trout from their basin. The large grounds, meanwhile, offer opportunities for walking, cycling, fishing or simply admiring the green artworks by the tree sculptor Marc Nucera. And the stunning Roman ruins of Vaison la Romaine are six miles away.
22. Domaine Joseph Lafarge, Burgundy
£ | TASTINGS | Best for unique accommodation
The Lafarge family have been making wine in this southern part of Burgundy since the 1720s. Their sparkling is particularly good, although the region is better known for still whites. They offer a broad range of vineyard accommodation, from classic rooms and gîtes to barrels big enough for a family — one that gets on well. An extra advantage is that Anthony Lafarge saves half his wine production to sell to guests. The barrels are the most fun, even if washing facilities are in a sanitary block — and, while there is no conventional restaurant, platters or a grill can be ordered, with excellent local products. But this is Burgundy, of course, halfway between Tournus and Mâcon, so there are restaurants everywhere.
23. Château de la Gaude, Provence
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for elegant escapes
The great 19th-century artist Paul Cézanne painted Mont St Victoire many times and, gazing at it from this Relais & Châteaux hotel in the beautiful Provençal countryside just outside Aix-en-Provence, it’s easy to understand why. Château de la Gaude is an elegantly converted 18th-century bastide, dotted with artworks and surrounded by vines — and it’s still a working winery. There are seven lovely bedrooms that have retained their period features, and another seven in the former farmhouse across the courtyard, plus a converted winemaker’s hut and a couple of well-designed standalone rooms. The spa is very smart, and the chef takes time out from preparing Michelin-starred dishes to make tapas to accompany wines by the glass in the cellar, which on Mondays and Thursdays becomes a bar called L’Ivresse (which means drunkenness).
24. Maison Zugno, Jura
£ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for fantastic scenery
The Jura, in eastern France, is the birthplace of natural wine, and many of the original stars of this style can be found on the wine list at this charming nine-room hotel. The restaurant features seasonal, local produce, and draws on an abundant kitchen garden. Wines come from round the corner, except when they come from round the other corner: Burgundy is fifty miles west. There’s a large terrace, a pool, tennis court and a spa; plus an extra bedroom in the grounds surrounded by trees, with fabulous views.
25. Château de La Mar, Savoie
££ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for an underrated wine region
Perched on a steep Savoie hillside overlooking six hectares of its own vines, the Château de La Mar is a very grand version of a guesthouse: a restored 17th-century castle that now has five resplendent bedrooms, with beams, baths and, in some cases, a medieval-style bed canopy. When it comes to relaxation there’s an outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna and hammam, plus massages available. There isn’t a restaurant but the surrounding area has several, including a two-Michelin-starred establishment, Les Morainières, 20 minutes’ walk away in Jongieux. As for wine other than the château’s own, Jongieux itself is a named cru (an officially recognised vineyard area) and what with Seyssel just north and Apremont and Chignin just south of Lake Bourget, nobody with an interest in Savoie wines needs to stay ignorant — or go thirsty. Tastings are in the cellar on request.
26. Domaine de Peretti della Rocca, Corsica
£ | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for island glory
The island of Corsica is famous for beaches, mountains and Napoleon Bonaparte, but it deserves to be known for its wines too, and there can’t be many better bases for exploring those than a wine estate. This one, near Figari in the south, has four charming rooms — straw lampshades, colourful linen, terraces with lovely views — and three two-bedroom bergeries, former sheep shelters converted into peaceful accommodation, with private pools. There are also treehouses overlooking the vines and olive trees. The poolside restaurant specialises in local dishes and, while it too has lovely views of the vines, there’s also the option to eat among them, drinking the estate’s wines within a grape’s throw of the fruit that made them.
27. Château de Berne, Provence
££ | SPA | POOL | TASTINGS | Best for immersion in nature
Provence is the land of rosé, and that is what this estate is famous for, along with a 34-room hotel furnished in the kind of bright, airy style that works so well with endless sunshine. The château has a spa and several restaurants, including a bistro and one, Le Jardin de Berne, that has a Michelin star plus a green star for sustainability. As if the options for eating, swimming (there are two pools), pampering and tasting rosés in the château’s distinctive square-cornered bottles weren’t enough, the huge (515 hectares) estate offers hiking paths and biking trails, with the chance to spot all sorts of wildlife, including deer and wild boar.
28. Manoir Henri Giraud, Champagne
£££ | SPA | TASTINGS | Best for boutique-style stays
The Giraud family are as dynamic as their superb wines, bubbling with ideas and with enthusiasm for putting them into practice. In addition, to an astonishing barrel-making programme — don’t leave without a tour and explanation — they have converted a former family home into five rooms, an upscale chef’s table and a terrific little spa that uses local chalk in its treatments. Not only are they in the pretty village of Aÿ, so famous for its champagnes that King Henry IV namechecked it in the 16th century, but they are also just a couple of miles from Épernay and the bars and tastings of the Avenue de Champagne.
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Additional reporting by Anna Richards
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