An hour north of Bordeaux, the Médoc is almost all vines and flat as a pancake all the way to the Gironde estuary. And in the middle of the grape-drenched landscape is La Maison d'Estournel. An 18th-century manor that once belonged to Louis-Gaspard d'Estournel, the wine baron behind the Cos d'Estournel vineyard next door, it now welcomes wine-lovers to stay. With only 14 rooms, it's intimate and personal and the interiors are classic enough to make you feel like royalty, but with just the right amount of contemporary. The kitchen was left in the capable hands of Jérôme Banctel, the triple-Michelin-starred chef who also runs the stoves at La Réserve Paris.
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Expect dark oak floors, white walls and plenty of burgundy and deep green velvet in. Inside the front door, a cosy, fire-lit salon gives way to a library and a long, sociable dining room. The kitchen is also open, so you can watch the team at work. The outdoor, heated pool is 18 metres of Burgundy limestone and there's a wellness yurt for pampering and treatments. Downstairs, a vaulted stone cellar holds carved elephants and bottles of Cos d'Estournel, poured by soft basement light. And outside you'll find two centuries-old hectares, giant sequoias, and a hidden vegetable garden.
The rooms and suites (of which there are six categories) climb a stone-and-ironwork staircase. Each is dressed in raw linens and sumptuous velvet, using a palette of peach, bordeaux, and deep blue, dreamt up by English designer Alex Michaelis of Soho House fame. Look for cushions with elephants stitched into the pattern, a nod to the Cos d'Estournel emblem, and showers curved like the oak barrels ageing below. The Junior Suite Terrasse is our favourite: a colonnaded balcony over the park, and on clear days, the pagodas next door.
Pedal or drive the Route des Châteaux and the great names come at you one after another, though nearly all of them need an appointment booked well ahead. Cos d'Estournel itself is a few hundred metres away, where you can enjoy a tour kept solely for house visitors. Up the estuary sit oyster shacks and fishing cabins on stilts, while the Atlantic surf beaches lie over the other side of the peninsula. Harvest runs through September, when the whole of the Médoc smells of fermenting grapes.
The restaurant is a heavy hitter and it knows it. Savour every meal and push the boat out with your orders. It's worth it.
Ask for the Cos d'Estournel tour and tasting when you book the room, not after you arrive. It's reserved for house visitors and the good slots at the château go first.
Most rooms are quite compact. We'd plump for a terrace room for the added square footage.
La Maison d'Estournel can be booked with Timbuktu as part of a tailor-made France trip, rather than as a standalone room reservation. Start online, customising one of our recommended France trips featuring La Maison d'Estournel or get advice and suggestions from one of our France specialists who will design the trip around your dates, check availability and handle every booking for you.
Stays at La Maison d'Estournel start from around $250, or US$250, per person per night as part of a tailor-made trip. The exact price depends on your travel dates, room type and the shape of the rest of your itinerary. A Timbuktu travel specialist can give you an accurate quote for your dates.
Grand, neoclassical streets, canelés hot from the oven and some of the world's finest wine.
