Chemin des Imberts, Provence
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Wine, these days, is less a drink than a way of life, and California understood that early. In Napa Valley the great wineries long ago turned into resorts, with spas, restaurants, bikes and yoga between the vines, while French châteaux mostly kept visitors at the cellar door. Château de Berne, deep in the green hinterland of the Var, about an hour inland from Saint-Tropez, has made a convincing marriage of the two: Napa ambition inside a Provençal château. Once through its gate, there is very little reason to drive out again.
The gate opens onto 515 hectares, much of it forest: umbrella pines, holm oaks and olive trees, with 150 hectares of organic vines across the estate. Stone arches and a library give the old château its sense of permanence, while rooms look towards gardens or vines and private villas hide among the trees, some with their own pools. The square bottle that carries Berne's rosé around the world borrows its outline from the two towers at the entrance. It is an unusually literal way of taking a piece of a hotel home.
Mornings can be as energetic as anyone likes, because Berne runs like a summer camp for grown-ups, with a wine list. Trails wind through the forest for walkers and electric mountain bikes; there are horses, tennis, padel, yoga and archery, ideally before the tasting rather than after. A sheepfold has joined the estate's activities, and the programme can run to stargazing or a winter truffle hunt. Not everything happens every day. Fortunately, doing nothing is also available without a booking.
Afternoons belong to the grape. Cellar visits, a vineyard safari and picnics between the rows all lead to the same pale glass, and tasted within sight of the grenache it came from, rosé becomes a good deal more than a summer drink. Even the spa joins in. Reached through a Japanese garden, it uses treatments made from grapes, and its indoor pool, lined with green mosaic, looks out over vines and olive groves.
The kitchen closes the circle. Three kitchen gardens, more than three thousand square metres between them, send vegetables, herbs and flowers towards the restaurants. At Le Jardin de Berne, Louis Rameau builds precise, often surprising dishes around what is ready to pick. The Bistrot offers a less ceremonious table, and in summer L'Olivier lays out lunch above the vines. It is hard to imagine a more persuasive argument for staying inside the gates, though the finest dinner deserves a reservation.
Self-sufficiency comes with small print. The road in winds through the forest and can confuse a sat nav, mobile signal comes and goes, and the beaches are a good hour away. Berne is also a large wine business and a favourite for weddings and events, so the estate is rarely as empty as the forest suggests. Service at dinner occasionally stumbles where the cooking does not, and the odd shower has a mind of its own.
Every day, thousands of square bottles leave Berne for restaurant tables around the world. The guests, given the choice, stay behind the gate.
The bottle
The square bottle Berne introduced in 2007 takes its shape from the two square eighteenth-century towers at the entrance to the estate.
A double row of cypresses runs between vine plots towards the estate's stone tower and roofs. Berne's 150 hectares of vines have been certified organic since February 2021, most of them on a limestone plateau at about 300 metres. Grenache Noir, Syrah, Cinsault and Carignan go into the rosé, and the 4x4 wine safari crosses the plots.
Raked gravel, stone and a cloud-pruned pine make up the Japanese garden that leads into the spa. Inside its 800 m² are six treatment rooms, two of them for couples, a hammam, sauna, jacuzzi and an indoor pool whose arched windows face vines and olive groves. Vinésime treatments use Grenache Noir marc from the Plateau de Berne plot.
Beans climb their canes below the stone buildings of the hotel. Berne keeps three kitchen gardens, together more than 3,000 square metres, where vegetables, berries, fruit, herbs and flowers are grown organically for the restaurants. Some 4,000 olive trees give the estate its own oil, and one of the Chef's Tables is laid out in the kitchen garden itself.
Le Bistrot is the estate's less ceremonious table, with Aurélie Liautaud in the kitchen since January 2022 and a covered terrace that is heated in the cooler months. It serves lunch every day and dinner on Mondays and Tuesdays, the evenings Le Jardin de Berne does not open. Louis Rameau's dinners at Le Jardin take the rest of the week.
At a glance
Where
Chemin des Imberts, 83780 Flayosc, Var; between Lorgues and Flayosc in the hinterland of Provence, reached by a private road through forest and olive groves. Les Arcs-Draguignan station about 20 minutes; Nice, Cannes-Mandelieu, Hyères and Marseille airports about 1 hour 15; helicopter about 10 minutes from Saint-Tropez
Why this one
515 hectares of trails, vines and forest.
Three kitchen gardens, over 3,000 m².
800 m², through a Japanese garden.
The Edit Notes
None of the 34 hotel rooms comes with its own pool. Guests in the rooms share two outdoor pools, one of them heated all year, and the indoor pool in the spa. Private pools belong to the villa side of Berne, and even there not to every house: the Domaine de la Clapière and Le Château list one. The Village House is in Lorgues itself, off the estate. Check the pool and the location before choosing a villa.
Le Jardin de Berne serves dinner only, from Tuesday to Sunday. Le Bistrot serves lunch every day but dinner only on Mondays and Tuesdays, so on a Monday evening it is the only restaurant on the estate, and from Wednesday to Sunday evening the choice is Le Jardin. L'Olivier is a summer restaurant for lunch, with an annual closure. A stay of several nights works best with the dinner at Le Jardin booked before arrival.
Much of the programme is booked through the experiences team rather than simply turned up for. Visiting the animals at the new sheepfold is free, though several sheepfold activities are announced as coming soon. The guided truffle hunt lasts two hours and no season is published for it. Harvest workshops run only during the harvest, and the Arts Festival in summer. Horse riding, archery, the 4x4 wine safari and guided e-bike rides carry a charge.
The hotel sits deep inside the estate: from the entrance between the towers, the private road continues for around eight minutes before the hotel signs appear, which is worth knowing when arriving after dark. Les Arcs-Draguignan is the nearest station, about twenty minutes away. Berne also hosts weddings, seminars and a weekly Friday evening event, so the estate and its restaurants are often busy with outside guests. Ask about events planned for the dates.
The price question
The money buys a whole estate to stay inside: forest, organic vines, a large spa, kitchen gardens and four places to eat, with activities that fill a week. It does not buy seclusion from the business around it. Berne is a working winery and an events venue, the private pool comes only with certain villas, and the coast is a drive away.
Book it for three or four nights in which the estate is the destination: a dinner at Le Jardin, a morning on horseback or bike, an afternoon in the spa and a tasting in the cellar. Anyone who wants the sea every day, or a quiet estate on a wedding weekend, is better placed elsewhere or should check the event calendar first.
Villa La Coste
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Hôtel & Spa du Castellet
Ochre buildings in a 12-hectare park of pines on the plateau above Le Castellet, next to the Circuit Paul Ricard: every room with a private terrace, a 700 m² spa and a six-hole golf course.
The Extra Edit
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