Auberge du Soleil

Auberge du Soleil occupies thirty-three acres of olive grove on Rutherford Hill in California wine country. The resort holds fifty rooms and suites in a contemporary style, and the property runs up the hillside so that most rooms look out over the valley's vineyards.

The main restaurant offers a fine-dining menu alongside a wine list that draws from the surrounding appellation, with seating either inside or on an outdoor terrace facing the vines. Beside it, a separate bistro and bar work at a more relaxed register — useful when you want a glass and a plate rather than a full service. The kitchen and bar together mean you rarely need to leave the property to eat and drink well, though the resort runs a vehicle programme with Mercedes-Benz for guests who want to visit neighbouring wineries.

The spa has eight treatment rooms. A swimming pool with cabanas and a trellised lounge sits on the grounds, along with a fitness centre and yoga studio open around the clock.

The outdoor sculpture garden is worth setting aside time for: more than one hundred works by over sixty California artists are placed across the property, ranging in scale and medium. It is one of the larger privately accessible sculpture collections in the region, and you can walk it without leaving the grounds.