Château Capitoul

Château Capitoul

The part of France between Montpellier and the Spanish border is one of those stretches of Mediterranean coast that has been producing wine since the Romans, overlooked by most of the travelling world in favour of Provence to the east, and quietly excellent as a result. The Massif de la Clape is a limestone massif rising from the coastal plain south of Narbonne, garrigue and Aleppo pines and wild herbs, with a lagoon on its southern edge where flamingos wade in the shallows and the sea is three kilometres beyond. Château Capitoul is on the northern edge of the massif, five minutes from Narbonne, on a hilltop surrounded by 200 acres of estate vineyards with views across the lagoon to the Pyrenees on clear days. The property offers two distinct ways to stay. The eight rooms and suites in the 19th-century neo-gothic château itself are intimate and carefully furnished, velvet sofas, Art Deco chandelier details, antique mirrors and enamel steel bathtubs, with panoramic views over the vines from every window. The 44 villas scattered through the estate are a different proposition: larger, more independent, with private terraces and pools and the space of something between a villa rental and a hotel, designed in a mineral palette that reads as an extension of the Clape landscape. Both have access to the full estate infrastructure. The Méditerranéo restaurant in the château serves a gastronomic menu built around local and seasonal produce with a Mediterranean sensibility. Asado, in the former barrel room across the courtyard, is built around wood-fired grills and a terrace with views across the vines, a more convivial evening. The Cinq Mondes spa is in the château basement, the gardens were designed by four-time Chelsea gold medallist James Basson using only plants native to the garrigue, and the wine cellar stocks the estate's own production alongside other Bonfils family wines. This is a hotel for people who like to discover a different side of France, and who find the combination of a working vineyard, a serious landscape, and genuine Mediterranean light more compelling than the more popular Côte d'Azur. Narbonne is worth an afternoon for the medieval cathedral alone. The Cathar country to the north, the Camargue to the east, and the Corbières wine route in every direction reward anyone who rents a car. The short version: Eight château rooms and 44 estate villas on a 200-acre working vineyard above a Mediterranean lagoon near Narbonne, with two restaurants, a Cinq Mondes spa, and gardens designed for the garrigue landscape. The Languedoc as it should be discovered.