If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR184.55), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
A short drive south of Bordeaux in the acclaimed Pessac-Léognan appellation, Château de Léognan has treehouses on stilts, fairy-tale forests and princess-worthy pads in the tower currently under construction. In keeping with its serious wine creds, the food is fittingly fancy – as well as the permanent restaurant coming soon to the old stables, from next spring, the domaine will host a shapeshifting dining concept with rotating star chefs (and locations). The 70 acres are also home to a soothing spa, but with wine this fine, hangovers *should* be minimal.
Double rooms from £173.85 (€203), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €5.24 per person per night on check-in.
More details
Rates don’t usually include breakfast (€25 a head for adults and over-12s; €15 for children aged six to 12; and free for under-sixes.
Also
Château de Léognan has an accessible room for guests with mobility issues and the communal areas are all accessible, too.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, tennis court, chapel, 70-acre grounds, gym with a view of the parkland, bicycles. In rooms: free minibar, Lavazza coffee machine, TV and free bottled water.
Our favourite rooms
If you want to really let down your hair during a stay early next year, book the room in the turret and go full Rapunzel; or if treehouses are more your youth-reliving style, go for one of the lodges on stilts secluded in the forest. Or for some literal forest bathing, from next spring, you can book one of the suites with a Nordic tub on the terrace to soak up more than just the views.
Spa
The spa invites little Smiths along for tailor-made treatments by Parisian brand Nougatine. Meanwhile, the grown-ups can enjoy face and body rituals with organic thalassic ingredients from Cap Ferret and already-soothing names such as ‘Head in the Clouds’ or ‘Sweet Dream’.
Packing tips
An empty suitcase (or, even better, boot) to stockpile the appellation’s finest red and white wares.
Also
There’s a programme of events held every summer, which includes live singers and bands to accompany cocktail nights, and pop-up guinguettes to give guests a less-bawdy taste of 17th-century Paris.
Château de Léognan accepts children of all ages. Some rooms have a sofa-bed, and cots and baby bath tubs can be added on request. The spa offers tween-friendly treatments, too, and a petting farm and kids’ club are in the works.
The staff can get creative with dinners in the vineyards, suppers in a salon or tea-time in the grounds.
Dress Code
Fine vintage.
Hotel restaurant
Le Manège's chef trained in the kitchens of George V in Paris. Sensibly, the appellation’s produce is put to use in his dishes, which might include verbena from the garden served in a trout tartare, beef fillet smoked with estate vines and hake steamed with saffron from Gironde. When it's unveiled next spring, Les Grandes Ecuries will be hard to keep up with and not just in terms of trend levels – the moving concept will pop up throughout the grounds, with big-name chefs arriving in time for the festivities. Breakfast is served either in the castle or in your room.
Hotel bar
Drinks are served throughout the estate, including in the assorted tea rooms (where you can of course order something harder).
Last orders
Le Manège is open for lunch (noon to 1.45pm) and dinner (7pm to 9.30pm). Breakfast is served in the various salons from 7.30am to 11.30am, but since staff want you to feel at home, technically it’s served whenever you want it.
Château de Léognan is in the Pessac-Léognan appellation, a short drive south of the centre of Bordeaux.
Planes
Bordeaux airport is around a half hour’s drive from the domaine – the hotel can book taxis (around €60).
Trains
You can ride the Eurostar all the way south to Bordeaux from London (journey time: just under six hours). The drive to the château from Gare de Bordeaux-Saint-Jean should take around 30 minutes; the hotel can organise taxis from this transport hub, too. Incoming guests can also hop on the TGV at Paris or Lille.
Automobiles
There are various ways to tour the estate and surrounding vineyards, including, if you’re feeling analogue, by horse-drawn carriage, but a plain old car will do, too – there’s free valet parking and plenty of spaces at the hotel.
Other
The Aérodrome de Bordeaux-Léognan-Saucats aerodrome is eight minutes away.
Worth getting out of bed for
Unsurprisingly for a stay within one of the world’s finest wine regions, grape-based activities are high on the agenda at Château de Léognan. Oenophile-pleasing pastimes include wine tours, workshops and tastings, horse-drawn-carriage or helicopter rides across the domaine, The 70-acre estate is also home to various jogging and strolling paths; there are mountain bikes to borrow; and the pastry chefs, sommeliers and mixologists are more than happy to impart their wisdom.
Local restaurants
The centre of Bordeaux is only half an hour away should the bright city lights (and fine-dining) call. Nearer to the domaine at the edge of the city limits, Pessac is where you’ll find Le Cohé, a classic French bistro serving dishes from both mer and terre. Or try Le Serpolet, also in Pessac, for more ‘bistronomic’ favourites, such as confit salmon, beef carpaccio and burrata with heirloom tomatoes.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this historic hotel in France and unpacked their full-bodied reds and crisp white wines, a full account of their Bacchus-pleasing break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Château de Léognan in Bordeaux…
Say santé to Château de Léognan, a Bordeaux bolthole about to unveil its second act, with fairy-tale forests, treehouses for grown-ups and an acreage spanning swathes of this impressive appellation. Suites are set in both the castle and throughout the grounds, with an incoming dovecote, two-bedroom options for families and split-level suites with Nordic tubs on the terrace (arriving next spring) just some of the varied accommodation options. The domaine produces 30,000 bottles a year (70 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 30 per cent merlot in case you’re wondering), and wine is so central to any stay that there’s an entire building dedicated to oenophile-approved activities. Other outbuildings include a chapel, and the old stables will soon be a refined restaurant. Staff prefer the term ‘maison’ to ‘hotel’ – especially apparent should you want breakfast at 2pm (perhaps after one glass of red too many the night before), or if you arrive early and your room happens to be ready and you’re swiftly ushered in (there’s no such thing as a half-day fee here). Our glasses are already raised.
