LES SOURCES DE CHEVERNY, France
When Alice and Jérôme Tourbier opened Les Sources de Caudalie in Bordeaux in 1999, its revelatory vinotherapy spa helped usher in a new kind of vineyard hotel. With sister estate Les Sources de Cheverny, the hope will be to replicate that success in another prestigious French winemaking region: the Loire Valley. This, of course, is châteaux country, and the hotel has a fine 18th-century example to call home, plus a village-like estate masterminded by architect Yves Collet. Design studio Be-Poles has preserved all of the historical heft but none of the fustiness, with flea-market furniture and walls painted in mossy green, while farm buildings house more rooms and the old storehouse a restaurant. That’s where you’ll find a bottle of house La Grand’ Vigne, made by a local organic winemaker, though it’s a waiting game until their own vines of white Romorantin grape come to fruition. ‘It was important for us to revive a winemaking activity that was once present at Château du Breuil, whose former cellars now house our auberge,’ says Alice. From around £166 per night (sources-cheverny.com).