Wine Resorts: A New Geography of Wine Tourism

@Calice Hospitality and Wines

All over the world, vineyards are transforming into living spaces. In Portugal, California, Spain, and Bulgaria, people no longer come just to taste a wine, but to spend a few days there: sleeping among the vines, relaxing at the spa, dining at the estate, strolling through the landscapes, and discovering the expertise. These wine resorts have become the new focal points of wine destinations, combining hospitality, culture, nature, and gastronomy in a complete vacation experience. In France, where the wine heritage is unparalleled, the movement remains tentative. The country that invented the art of living with wine is still struggling to invent the hospitality model that suits it.

International wine resort models where wine becomes a global experience

In Rioja, Frank Gehry's Hotel Marqués de Riscal was conceived from the outset as a manifesto. Its 61 rooms , four restaurants , Caudalie spa and conference centre are integrated into the historic cellars of the house founded in 1858. Here, wine becomes a source of culture, architecture and conversation.

In California, the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Napa Valley, built around the active vineyard of the Elusa Winery takes the idea of immersion even further. The complex has 85 rooms and suites , 20 private residences , two restaurants, a spa, several swimming pools and a full program of activities for adults and children. Younger guests participate in nature workshops, culinary initiations or educational walks in the vineyards, while parents explore the cellar or relax in the spa. The model is based on intergenerational conviviality , which helps to smooth out seasonality and build loyalty among family customers; a point that is still not very integrated into French wine tourism culture.

In Porto, The Yeatman , owned by the Taylor's group, illustrates the urban version of the wine resort : 109 rooms, a two-star restaurant, a Wine Spa , indoor and outdoor pools, and a cultural program throughout the year.

And in Bulgaria, the Wine & SPA Complex Starosel/ Винен и СПА комплекс "Старосел" , with its more than 200 rooms, four restaurants, thermal spa and 1,000-seat congress center, shows how a vineyard can become the tourist and economic engine of a rural area.

In these places, time stretches with the rhythm of the seasons, the golden light lingers on the vines, and wine expresses itself through all forms of pleasure: taste, landscape, architecture, hospitality. It is no longer a visit activity, but an experience of staying.

French excellence still segmented

France is not to be outdone: Les Sources de Caudalie (62 rooms, a two-star restaurant, a pioneering wine therapy spa), the Château de Bern (40 rooms, an 800 m² spa, a cooking school and two restaurants, one of which is Michelin-starred), the Château L'Hospitalet Wine Resort Beach & Spa 5* (more than 90 rooms, a spa, an art gallery and an annual program of events) which has just joined the Hilton Curio Collection , the first step towards an international strategy, or the Château La Coste which attracts more than 250,000 visitors a year thanks to its contemporary art center and its gourmet restaurant, its villas, its hotel. These establishments, among the most beautiful in Europe, embody a rare know-how, where wine, art and heritage dialogue with high-end hotels. But their approach remains, for the most part, centered on the hotel and gastronomic experience, in the noble sense of the term, with comfortable and prestigious stays, often designed for adult or couple clientele. What is still missing is the coherence of destination : a program designed over several days, activities for all generations, and networking on a territorial scale. In other words, France excels in the art of hospitality, but has not yet completely structured the art of the stay.

In Champagne, the opening of the Loisium Hotel illustrates this ambiguity well: a beautiful contemporary hotel inspired by wine, but without true immersion in the winery. Similarly, the Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, as luxurious as it is, remains a hotel in a wine-growing landscape, but cannot be considered a wine destination in itself. But the nuance is essential: a wine resort is defined neither by its stars nor by its spa, but by the coherence of a stay where the wine experience irrigates every moment.

In Beaujolais, the Hameau Duboeuf illustrates another approach, that of a vast wine tourism complex combining a museum, entertainment, a shop, and dining areas. A true pioneer in showcasing wine for the general public, it attracts more than 100,000 visitors per year and remains one of the rare French examples of an offering structured around the discovery of wine in all its forms. However, it does not include accommodation and defines an experience model, rather than a stay model.

Economic, land, cultural and receptive obstacles

If the model is struggling to develop, it is not due to a lack of potential, but rather because of a tangle of constraints: tax and service charges that are disincentives compared to our European neighbors, land restrictions that make any construction or expansion in agricultural areas complex; a fragmentation of stakeholders (winegrowers, hoteliers, communities) rarely united around the same project; and above all, a cultural delay : in France, the vine was long thought of as an agricultural activity, not as a component of hospitality. The sector invested in production, more rarely in staging the experience. In other segments of tourism, the logic of an integrated stay combining accommodation, leisure, well-being and gastronomy has long been established. The wine world, however, has not yet found its successful form of this model, capable of reconciling integration, immersion and sustainability. It is now being pushed more by hospitality stakeholders in this area than by the sectors or interprofessional organizations.

The most decisive obstacle is also that of structured receptiveness . France has dynamic platforms such as Winegrowers Street or Winalist, which facilitates the booking of experiences. But the majority of agents still focus largely on visits, not yet on complete stays. For the moment, no player has been able to truly combine accommodation, catering, activities, and culture into an integrated offer, designed in the manner of a “wine tour operator.” This lack of intermediation does not favor the emergence of a true network of French wine resorts . It also reflects a lack of structuring at the destination level, failing to integrate all the components of the stay.

Towards an integrated and sustainable model

The development of true wine resorts represents a major lever for transformation for wine-growing regions. A well-positioned 100-room establishment can generate more than €10 million in annual local benefits: jobs, supplies, taxation, subcontracting. But beyond the economy, it's about reinventing the relationship with time and space: offering an extended, four-season stay, rooted in nature, combining transmission, gastronomy, culture and sustainability, and aimed at all generations . Families, in particular, are a key target for rejuvenating the industry and anticipating the changing behavior of new wine customers, those for whom the experience matters as much as the tasting.

Wine tourism is entering a phase of maturity. After the tasting, after the visit, comes the time for the stay. A stay where one discovers, learns, recharges, and shares. France has everything it needs to become a model: heritage, landscapes, know-how, and the art of living. What it still lacks is an overall vision , clear governance, and collective boldness.

Wine resorts are not a luxury of comfort: they are the laboratory of the new wine hospitality, one where the vineyard becomes a place of life, learning and transmission for all generations. A breeding ground of attractiveness for rural areas, and a project for the future for the estates that commit to this path.

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