Best European vineyards to visit and stay

Best European vineyards to visit

La Forestiera Planeta Wine Estate, Sicily, Italy

Unsurprisingly it’s all about wine at the Planeta Wine Estate, just outside Menfi in south-western Sicily. As one of the island's most well-established and highly regarded wine producers, Planeta has five different territories dotted around Sicily but Menfi is where it all began, back in the 16th century. At nearby La Forestiera (part of the estate) there are 14 guestrooms set amid regimented vines, plus a restaurant with a menu informed by its surroundings – the herbs of the countryside and seafood from the nearby coast.

Sip a glass of Nero d’Avola on the pool terrace or visit one of Planeta’s wineries for an in-depth tasting. As well as the pool, in the warmer months guests have access to the Lido Fiori on the beach at Porto Palo di Menfi, 10 minutes’ drive away. Planeta also has vast olive groves at Capparriva producing DOP Val di Mazzara oils – guests can sign up for a tasting and learn about harvesting and pressing.

Doubles from £226, check availability at booking.com

L'AND, Alentejo, Portugal

This elegantly luxurious 26-suite spa hotel combines contemporary design and gourmet cooking, set among vineyards in Portugal’s Alentejo region, an hour’s drive from Lisbon. A meal in the hotel’s futuristic, pendant-hung restaurant, whose glass walls frame the vineyards, is the big draw. Chef José Tapadejo was born nearby in Castelo de Vide, and trained in Portugal, but he’s also worked in Scandinavia, so his dishes are creative interpretations of Alentejan classics, often using fermented and foraged ingredients – local black pork, scarlet prawns and pike-perch, on a cushion of Alentejo’s must-eat migas.
Being surrounded by six hectares of vineyards (all organic), you’ll want to taste L’AND’s own wines, made from a blend of native grapes, such as Touriga Nacional, and international ones such as Alicante Bouschet and Syrah. Pick of the bunch is L’AND’s full-bodied Reserva Red 2016. On site you can do tastings, and vineyard and winery tours, and the hotel can arrange visits to neighbouring vineyards, too.
Doubles from £197, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

For more Portugal travel ideas, discover our favourite foodie trips in Portugal.

Torralbenc, Menorca, Spain

A cluster of 19th-century whitewashed farm buildings, with views out over the sparkling Med, Torralbenc is now a luxury hotel, surrounded by 70 hectares of fields, orchards and vineyards in the south-western corner of Menorca. The restored estate not only makes its own olive oil but also produces wine.

Starting with just five hectares of vines in 2006, the property now has 16 hectares dedicated to growing grapes. Its first wine was bottled in 2016 and the estate now produces a merlot and syrah blend (all red berries and spicy black pepper with a tinge of toasted vanilla), a bright rosé from indigenous monstrell and parellada grapes (floral with strawberries and cherries on the palate) and an easy-drinking white blended from sauvignon blanc, viognier, chardonnay and parellada with citrus, stone fruits and floral notes.

Guests can book a vineyard experience with the hotel’s oenologist, exploring the vineyards on foot or by bike, learning how the wines are produced and enjoying a tasting, with local Menorcan cheeses, among the vines.

Doubles from £208, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Arilds Vingård, Skåne, Sweden

Thanks to the region’s fertile soil and relatively mild winters, Skåne in south Sweden has, over the past two decades, become one of Europe’s most northerly wine-growing regions. As well as offering wine tours and tastings, and cosy accommodation, this family-run winery has a restaurant serving traditional country cooking that pairs well with its own reds, whites and rosés, as well as cocktails made with its own gin.

Simple, well-cooked dishes include the likes of fried mackerel, sourced from local fishermen, with boiled potatoes and a mustard and dill sauce, or local brisket with potato cakes and coleslaw.

Doubles from £203, check rates and availability at arildsvingard.se

Village Castigno, Hérault, France

In the small village of Assignan, Village Castigno is a whimsical boutique hotel peppered between old village houses. On warm evenings the gentle hum of Nina Simone flows from the open windows of La Petit Table, while chef Pablo leans out of the window, picking fresh rosemary and sage. Guests, staff and locals from the village relax in the central square with a glass of vin rouge while children chase each other down narrow paved alleys until bowls brimming with mussels are brought to the table and all goes quiet.

Around the village are 42 hectares of vineyard, all of which produce organic wines. Take an hour and a half’s open buggy ride around the vineyards with Marc and explore hot springs and stunning views, before a tasting in the newly opened wine chai (wine store). Our favourite was the Terra Casta, a red wine with a peppery flavour (derived, as sommelier Charlotte explained, through natural infusion from the wild sage, jennifer and thyme that grow in bushes next to the grapes).

Doubles from £112, check availability at booking.com

The Good Life, Syros, Greece

The villas and studios at this aptly named organic retreat each come with kitchens (help yourself to plums, peaches, figs and lemons from the farm to pep up your holiday breakfasts). Guests congregate around a large outdoor kitchen in the evenings to cook and share stories, and once a week they’re invited to join a (complimentary) communal dinner – think barbecued beef fillet with a range of pitta breads and salads – accompanied by generous amounts of Greek wine. Grapes in the vineyards are also used to distil juice for tsipouro (similar to Italian grappa), and guests are given a small bottle to take home with them.

Join the grape-picking holidays for lower accommodation prices, long lunches in the vineyards and sunset wine tastings, with a full introduction to traditional and newer, lesser-known Greek wines.

Villas from £207, check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk

Son Brull, Mallorca, Spain

Guests at gastronomic bolthole Son Brull can ask the kitchen to pack a gourmet picnic if they’re heading out to hike or bike around the surrounding hills. This elegant finca, or farmhouse, in the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana, dates back to the 12th century but the approach to food and wine is bang up to date.

The kitchen garden, where chef Rafel Perello sources the ingredients for his inventive menus and cookery classes, brims with home-grown herbs, salad leaves and vegetables, while the trees surrounding the hotel are laden with oranges, lemons and figs. The hotel has its own organic vineyard: pair its wines with dinner in the fine-dining restaurant, 365, where seasonal eight-course tasting menus showcase local Mallorcan ingredients. More casual, bistro-style, dining can be had in the bar (with its ancient olive press) during the winter or on the terrace in sunnier months.

Doubles from £530, check availability at booking.com or mrandmrssmith.com

Il Borro, Tuscany, Italy

Il Borro is a true working estate, set in the remains of a medieval village in Valdarno valley, a wilder, more rustic corner of Tuscany. Grapes are harvested entirely by hand and taken to the winery, 700 olive trees provide oil, and fields of buckwheat are a playground for honeybees, who repay the hospitality by creating a unique bittersweet, slightly spicy honey. Hectare after hectare of organic veg provide the hotel’s three-floored osteria and Tuscan bistro with the ultimate kitchen garden.

Every September, guests at Il Borro can take part in the wine harvest and feast alongside the workers and owners (the glamorous Ferragamo family) at this 800-hectare estate. Think bottles of the estate’s wines plonked on long make-shift banqueting tables under white parasols, and a huge porchetta crackling away on a BBQ set up next to vines of San Giovese grapes ready to be harvested for the next vintage.

The hotel has village cottages as well as several farmhouse suites – albeit farmhouses that come with infinity pools, vine-covered terraces and dining rooms where you can whip up your own meals from the veg and eggs in Il Borro’s organic produce boxes (top up with a trip to Arezzo market).

Doubles from £372, check availability at booking.com

Lyrarakis, Crete

Holidaymakers heading to Crete shouldn’t miss the stunning family-owned Lyrarakis winery, set in heavenly countryside and only 30 minutes’ drive from Heraklion, the island’s capital. Famed for nurturing indigenous and forgotten grape varieties, Lyrarakis offers various options to tour its beautiful organic vineyards, visit the cellar and wine museum, and explore the range of fabulous wines at guided tastings. It also serves excellent local food, which you can take for a dreamy picnic to enjoy among the vines and olive trees. Stay at the fabulous Inotropes hotel nearby (Lyrarakis can arrange transfers from the airport or local hotels), while history buffs shouldn’t miss a trip to Knossos, just 12 miles away, to see the remarkable remains of the palace complex that was at the centre of the Minoan civilisation, and the home of the mythical Minotaur.

Doubles at Inotropes Hotel from £78, check availability at booking.com

Chêne Bleu La Verrière, Southern Rhône

Established in 2005, Chêne Bleu is a relative newcomer to the region but it has quickly established itself as a premium producer of bold, impressive wines made from its own biodynamically farmed grapes. Stay at La Verrière, a medieval priory at the heart of the estate that’s been beautifully restored and comes with a pool and a very good restaurant using local ingredients.

There is a range of wine tasting options, as well as lessons in cookery and beekeeping, and other activities can be arranged too. A really special place in the tranquil heart of the Southern Rhône.

Check rates and availability at booking.laverriere.com

Castello Banfi Il Borgo, Tuscany

Set on Montalcino’s largest wine estate, by a medieval castle, this glamorous Italian hotel has been shaped from a hamlet of former estate workers’ houses. Romantic, traditionally styled suites - with terracotta floors, antique furnishings and linen-canopied beds – and classical Tuscan cooking (courses are also available) make it popular with honeymooners but it’s the estate’s Brunello that draws in visiting gourmands; in the on-site enoteca/ wine bar local sheep’s cheese and prosciutto can be paired to the estate’s wines.
Doubles from £762, check availability at booking.com

Hotel Marqués de Riscal, Rioja

Not a vineyard, but a hotel to visit for wine lovers. Almost two decades on from its opening this Frank Gehry-designed architectural showstopper still amazes guests on their first approach. But there’s more to this upmarket Spanish hotel than its gleaming titanium structure. As well as its two restaurants – Michelin-starred Marques de Riscal Restaurant and the more casual Bistro 1860 – there’s a wine bar where, alongside small plates of Iberian ham, chorizo and croquettas, guests can try fine vintages from the Marqués de Riscal cellars as well as more than 200 international labels, many of them available by the glass.
Doubles from £557, check availability at booking.com

Butul Family Farmstead, Istria, Slovenia

In the lush green hills above Slovenia's short coastline, Butul Family Farmstead is a family-run vineyard and farm. Set in an oasis of olive, pomegranate and fig trees, beehives and vines, it offers B&B accommodation as well as meals. Everything here is made from scratch: the breakfast spread includes three-day fermented bread, home-preserved anchovies, tangy pickled aubergines, thick honey, and fig jams. Taste the estate’s Istrian wines, including the traditional orange wine. Keen ambassadors of a slow Mediterranean way of life, the Butuls are a genuine representation of Istrian Slovenia.

Doubles from £99, check availability at booking.com

Andrássy Rezidencia Wine & Spa, Tarcal

In Hungary’s historic Tokaj-Hegyalja wine growing region (tours of local vineyards can be arranged), this five-star hotel and spa (treatments are tailored around vinotherapy) has won a following among modern-day wine buffs looking for less mainstream tastings. While its restaurant offers modern interpretations of Hungarian classics, it’s the accompanying wine pairing choices that most guests are more concerned about – the list runs to 80 different Tokaj wines from 25 different growers.
Doubles from £155, check availability at booking.com