02The story

01

Château La Coste is a 200-hectare vineyard, farmed by certified organic methods, onto which major architects and artists have been invited to build and install. Villa La Coste is where a visitor sleeps, and the difference between seeing the estate and staying on it is considerable.

There are 31 villa suites, each opening onto a terrace above the vines with the valley beyond, and each written in local stone, clear light and very little else. Selected suites have a pool of their own. Louison holds the serious table and the spa draws its treatments straight out of the Provençal ground. Halfway between Aix-en-Provence and the Luberon, it is quiet in the way that only a large estate can be.

02

200 hectares of vines

The estate is a working organic vineyard before it is anything else, and the art has been placed into that landscape rather than arranged around it. The Art and Architecture Walk takes several hours and delivers pavilions, sculpture and buildings at the pace of a country footpath. Staying on site changes the tempo entirely: the walk can be interrupted for lunch, resumed at five or abandoned in favour of the terrace. Very few galleries offer that.

03

Light, stone and a terrace

The 31 villa suites are built from local materials and rely on daylight for their effect: pale stone, generous glazing and rooms that resist decoration. Each opens onto a terrace facing the vines and the valley, and selected suites add a private pool for the hours when Provence is at its hottest. Larger configurations extend the same arrangement for a family. With interiors this restrained, the landscape supplies the colour and the afternoon supplies the change of light.

04

Louison and the Provençal spa

Louison is the gastronomic address, cooking with produce from an estate that grows a good deal of it. The gardens, the bar and the pool take care of everything less formal, and the spa works with the colours, fragrances, oils, clays and salts of Provence. It amounts to the right answer to a morning spent looking at art. Aix-en-Provence is near for a market and the Luberon for a drive, but the estate rarely lets anyone leave.

03Highlights

What sets it apart.

The signature moment

The light comes off the vines at seven, and the way back passes a pavilion that was empty this morning and is full of light now. On the terrace of the suite the stone still holds the heat. Down the hill, the tables at Louison are being set.

01200-hectare organic vineyard estate
0231 villa suites with terraces
03Art and Architecture Walk
04Private pools in selected suites
05Provence-inspired spa

04Mr & Mrs Smith

Here, as a preferred guest.

01
Breakfast for two, every morning
Breakfast for two each morning, at the hotel’s own table: the first privilege of the day and the one most worth taking slowly.Breakfast served however the house prefers, and cooked from the estate where there is one.
02
A hotel credit to spend
A credit held in your name at the hotel, to spend as the stay suggests: a table, a treatment, an evening at the bar.A credit for dinner from the estate, the spa or the bar before it.
03
A room above your booking
An upgrade to the category above, so the room you return to each evening outranks the one on the confirmation.A room above the one reserved, at houses where every room is an individual.
04
An earlier arrival
Check-in before the house’s usual hour: the overnight flight lands, the car draws up and the first day begins in your room.The room ready for a Friday lunchtime, so the weekend has three afternoons instead of two.
05
A later departure
Check-out after the house’s usual hour, so the last morning is spent as the first was: at the table, by the pool or simply in the room.Sunday kept until after a last walk through the grounds and one more coffee.
06
Known before you arrive
VIP recognition as a guest of the house: your preferences and the occasion known to the hotel before the door is opened for you.The hosts know the occasion, and the name on the booking, before the gravel announces you.
07
Offers for preferred guests
The offers a programme keeps for its own preferred guests, extended to a Dip Needle booking and shown beside the rate for your dates.Smith’s preferred offers for your dates, kept distinct from the Extra in your proposal.