Lieu-dit Palanquey, Sainte-Colombe, Gironde
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The Hundred Years' War took more than a century to wind down and a single summer's day to finish. On 17 July 1453, on the plain below Castillon, a few miles from here, French cannon made short work of an Anglo-Gascon army, and within months Bordeaux had surrendered. The fighting was over. Officially, at least.
Because another war still rumbles through these hills, and it is fought with corkscrews. Around Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, the great estates hide behind gates and appointment books, and the grandest names are dropped like titles at a coronation. A visitor can spend an entire tasting worrying about saying the wrong thing about the vintage. It is a beautiful part of the world. It can also be a remarkably tiring one.
Château du Palanquey has quietly declared a ceasefire. It is a stately country house in its own eleven hectares of vines, ten minutes from the medieval lanes of Saint-Émilion and a few miles from some of the most expensive vineyards on earth. And yet nobody here asks anyone to prove a thing. The handful of rooms take their shapes from the old walls, a few hide a private hot tub, and a library with a wood fire waits for evenings when the weather turns traitor.
The house is at its most romantic when the light starts to go. The vines turn bronze on every side and the garden smells of warm earth. Guests drift in for the table d'hôte, where everyone eats the same thing at the same time and much of it has come from a few steps outside the kitchen. The wine is poured generously and without a lecture. Nobody swirls competitively. Couples linger, and the conversation drifts from what is in the glass to absolutely anything else.
The spa keeps the peace on grey days, with a heated indoor pool and a sauna, and an outdoor pool takes over when the sun returns. For anyone keen to take a souvenir home that will not break in a suitcase, there are cooking classes. The fiercest dispute on the estate is over which pool to doze beside.
Every peace treaty has its terms, and these are simple. With so few rooms and a single menu, Palanquey is a house to book rather than wander into, and anything the kitchen should know is best mentioned ahead. Beyond the vines, everything requires a car. Children under sixteen will have to wait their turn. Wine lovers who would rather drink a great bottle than defend their opinion of it will feel at home at once, couples and romantics even sooner.
Five and a half centuries ago, the fighting stopped on the plain below Castillon. At Palanquey it stops at the front door. Nobody has anything to prove here, not to the sommelier, not to the château next door, and certainly not to the wine.
In the glass
The house wine of Palanquey is made by the team of Château Angélus from the estate's own vines, and it is the wine served at the table d'hôtes.
Suite Vendange has the largest private outdoor space in the house: a rooftop terrace of 30 m² with its own hot tub, a table for eating outside and a summer lounge. From it the view runs over the vineyard and down to the outdoor pool, and towards the thirteenth-century church of the village. Inside, the bedroom is done in raspberry tones.
The ground floor opens as a row of salons kept for guests: the billiard room with its fireplace, the main salon, and a games and music room, honey-coloured stone walls hung with modern pictures. In winter the table d'hôtes moves in here from the park, and on grey days this is where the house gathers before and after the spa.
The indoor pool is the reason the house works in winter: kept at 30 °C all year, lit by tall windows with a view of the vines, beside a large hot tub, a sauna and a zen lounge around an inner patio. Access comes with every night booked, seven days a week; Esthederm facials, massages and yoga are booked separately.
The outdoor pool lies below the château on a terrace of pale stone, its floor patterned in blue mosaic, with parasols and loungers and the estate's vines running to the horizon. It is heated, but only in season. From the rooftop of the Suite Vendange it is directly in view, which is worth knowing for anyone who prefers to swim unobserved.
At a glance
Where
2, lieu-dit Palanquey, 33350 Sainte-Colombe, Gironde; in the vineyards between Saint-Émilion and Castillon, with a 360° view over both; 7 km and about ten minutes from Saint-Émilion, 50 km and 40 minutes from Bordeaux, 45 minutes from Bordeaux-Mérignac and Bergerac airports, 1 h 10 from the Arcachon basin; Paris 2 h 40 by high-speed train to Bordeaux
Why this one
Suite Vendange's 30 m² terrace.
Two heated pools, included.
Made by the Angélus team.
The Edit Notes
Only Vendange and Vignoble have a private hot tub, and they are very different. Vendange has a 30 m² rooftop terrace looking over the vineyard and towards the thirteenth-century village church, with a dining area and a summer lounge. Vignoble is on the ground floor, step-free, takes up to three, and its terrace faces the estate's own vines. The Suite Château, at 42 m² the largest, has a bath and a sitting area but no tub of its own.
There is no restaurant in the usual sense: the table d'hôtes cooks for dinner on reservation, so an unbooked evening means driving out, and the village of Saint-Émilion is 7 km away. The cooking follows the kitchen garden and nearby organic producers, which is a good reason to state allergies or dislikes when booking rather than at the table. In summer dinner is served in the park, in winter in the salons beside the billiard room.
Every night booked includes the spa: the indoor pool kept at 30 °C all year, sauna, hot tub and the fitness room looking over the vines. Treatments, massages and yoga are booked and paid separately, and with only two treatment rooms they are worth reserving before arrival. The outdoor pool is heated only in season, so a winter stay is built around the indoor pool and the salons rather than the garden.
Sainte-Colombe sits between Saint-Émilion and Castillon, and wine visits, the village and Bordeaux all need a car; there is a charging point for electric cars. Close to the house, the vines can be explored on mountain bikes on loan, or on electric bikes hired on booking. The Grand Saint-Émilionnais Golf Club, laid out by Tom Doak, is five minutes away, and tasting lessons can be held at the château itself.
The price question
The money buys a small house where the spa, two heated pools and a vineyard view are shared by the guests of six rooms, and where dinner is cooked for those who booked it. It does not buy a restaurant, room service at any hour or a walk to the village. The real comparison is a hotel in Saint-Émilion itself, with dinners out and no pool.
Book it for two or three nights as a couple or with friends, with a suite chosen for its terrace, dinners reserved at the table d'hôtes and wine visits planned by car. Anyone travelling with children, or wanting to stroll to a different restaurant each evening, is better placed in Saint-Émilion itself.
Hôtel de Pavie
The Perse family's hotel in the centre of Saint-Émilion, beside the bell tower of the monolithic church, with a raised terrace over the roofs and La Table de Pavie.
Les Sources de Caudalie
Sixty-two rooms and suites in six houses among the vines of Château Smith Haut Lafitte at Martillac, about twenty minutes by car south of Bordeaux.
The Extra Edit
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