If you're looking for a hotel that pays a little more attention to wine than most, then this recently formed association may be a good starting point. The company say it was set up ‘in order to reunite wine hotels of high quality, where each member has to fulfil norms of service of quality, paying attention to each detail, architecture, decoration, etc.’ They started in Argentina and have expanded into Chile, Spain and France. Over the coming months they expect to branch out into Italy, South Africa and the United States.
The hotels that join the collection may be set in a vineyared but not necessarily – they may be distinguished by having a particularly good wine list or wine tasting/touring programmes and they are all in wine regions.
Wine Hotels Collection thus acts as a standard setter and international marketing tool for individual hotels in wine regions. The Collection’s website will eventually include a wine shop selling some of the wines on offer in the hotels, and there’s a wine spa and vinotherapy section.
Of the hotels listed below, the only one I have visited is Club Tapiz in Mendoza. I was there in December 2005, before this association existed in Chile, but already it was a charming little hotel with an excellent restaurant in a very attractive setting – generous, traditionally styled rooms in a single-storey building around a peaceful, unfussy courtyard. And good wine.
Current members of the Collection:
Posada Chañarmuyo (La Rioja, Argentina)
Viñas del Golf (San Rafael, Argentina)
Finca Adalgisa (Mendoza, Argentina)
Club Tapiz (Mendoza, Argentina)
Estancia Colomé (Salta, Argentina)
Viñas de Cafayate (Salta, Argentina)
Hotel Golf Peralada (Girona, Spain)
Hospederia del Vino (La Rioja, Spain)
Château Isabeau de Naujan (Girondes, France)
Tabonko Guest House (Maule, Chile)
Coming soon:
Haciendas de España (Spain)
Château Franc Mayne (France)
Villa Mangiacane Hotel (Italy)
Lares de Chacras (Argentina)
Huentala Vineyard Hotel (Argentina)
For more information and details of the hotels listed, visit www.winehotelscollection.com