The Best Hotels in Saint-Émilion

Rooms with balconies over Saint-Émilion's medieval rooftops make it easy to forget you're also supposed to be wine tasting. This luxury hotel inside an antique building pairs the old stone shell with bold colors and patterned wallpaper that would not look out of place in a design magazine. Breakfast is lavish, which is the hotel's way of telling you the vineyards can wait. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Eight rooms, each named for a year woven into the owning family's story, sit inside a stone house at the center of Saint-Émilion's medieval square. This small inn pairs contemporary interiors with all the history the walls can hold, and manages to feel neither fussy nor like a museum. The restaurant downstairs holds a Michelin star, which means the breakfast hour might be the quietest the place ever gets.

Despite the name, there are no turrets here, just a stately manor house sitting inside the vineyards of Saint-Émilion. This luxury boutique hotel is built around the idea of slow living, which means vineyard views, rambling gardens, a spa with an indoor pool, and a table d'hôtes built on regional produce and local Bordeaux wines. The Michelin Guide has awarded it one Key. Rooms are all different shapes thanks to the old building, with modern furniture dropped cheerfully into heritage bones.

The real draw at this nine-room château hotel just outside Saint-Émilion is underground: old stone quarries where Cabernet Franc ages in oak barrels. Above ground, the restored interior goes a little sideways in the best way, with each room styled to its own theme, from Pop Art yellows to zebra prints. The candlelit dining room is properly French and traditional, but the wine made on the premises is the thing everyone is actually there for.