The Hotels That Earned MICHELIN Keys in Wine Country

For most of a century, the Michelin Guide judged hotels with a row of pavilion symbols and left the stars to restaurants. In April 2024 it introduced the MICHELIN Key, a hotel distinction meant to carry the weight of a star, and began awarding it first in France and then across the world. The second global selection of MICHELIN Key hotels, published on September 18, 2026, counts 2,832 in total: 155 with three Keys, 657 with two and 2,020 with one, including 470 hotels added this year.

For the wine traveller, Michelin Key hotels are a useful filter. Some of the most decorated hotels in the selection stand in the middle of vineyards, and several are owned by wine estates. Michelin now rates wine estates too, with the Michelin Grape.

What the Keys Mean

Michelin’s inspectors assess hotels through anonymous stays and visits, looking for a distinctive hospitality concept, real character, a warm welcome and a very high level of service. The guide defines the three levels this way:

• One Key: “A true gem with its own character and personality.”
• Two Keys: “Somewhere truly unique and exceptional in every way.”
• Three Keys: “The ultimate in comfort and service, style and elegance… a destination in itself.”

In the guide’s hotel listings, those become “a very special stay”, “an exceptional stay” and “an extraordinary stay.” Every Key count below was checked against the hotel’s own page on the MICHELIN Guide website.

Champagne

The region has two three-Key hotels, both within a short drive of the great houses.

• Domaine Les Crayères, Reims (Three Keys). A 20-room château, once the home of Madame Pommery, set in its own park within walking distance of the Pommery and Ruinart cellars. The grand dining room remains one of the classic tables of Champagne.
• Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, Champillon (Three Keys). A 19th-century coaching inn with a modern wing, set on the hillside above Épernay with 47 rooms facing south across the vineyards of the Marne valley. There is a Michelin-starred restaurant and a large spa.

Bordeaux and Sauternes

• Les Sources de Caudalie, Martillac (Three Keys). The 73-room hotel among the vines of Château Smith Haut-Lafitte in Pessac-Léognan, home of Caudalie’s grape-based vinotherapy spa, fed by a thermal spring beneath the property. La Grand’Vigne holds two Michelin stars.
• Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Bommes (Two Keys). The partnership between the glassmaker Lalique and a Sauternes premier cru. There are 13 suites in the château, and the restaurant, Lalique, holds two Michelin stars and pairs its menus with the estate’s sweet wines.

Burgundy

• Les Sources de Vougeot, Gilly-lès-Cîteaux (Two Keys). The newest entry on this list and one of the hotels Michelin named in announcing the 2026 selection. It occupies a former priory and residence of the abbots of Cîteaux, within the walls of the Château de Gilly, a short walk from the Clos de Vougeot. A renovation completed in 2026 left 49 rooms, two restaurants and a Caudalie spa in the old vaulted cellars. It belongs to the same Sources collection as Les Sources de Caudalie.

Tuscany

• Castiglion del Bosco, A Rosewood Hotel, Montalcino (Three Keys). A 5,000-acre estate in Brunello country with a medieval village at its heart, its own winery, 42 rooms and suites, a cooking school and a Michelin-starred restaurant.
• Borgo San Felice, Castelnuovo Berardenga (Two Keys). An entire hamlet in Chianti Classico converted into a 63-room hotel, surrounded by the vineyards of the San Felice estate.

Douro Valley and Castilla y León

• Six Senses Douro Valley, Lamego (Two Keys). A renovated 19th-century manor high on the south bank of the Douro, with 71 rooms, a wine library and a spa whose treatments use Douro grapes.
• Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine, Sardón de Duero (Three Keys). A 12th-century abbey on a 500-acre wine estate in the Duero valley just west of Ribera del Duero, with 30 rooms and the Michelin-starred Refectorio in the former refectory.

Rioja has a one-Key entry worth mentioning: Hotel Marqués de Riscal, Elciego, Frank Gehry’s titanium-clad building at one of the region’s oldest bodegas.

Napa and Sonoma

California’s wine country holds three of the state’s six three-Key hotels.

• Meadowood Napa Valley, St. Helena (Three Keys). A 36-room resort set on its own wooded valley with cottages, a spa and a new Wine Center offering tastings and classes.
• Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford (Three Keys). A hillside property with 50 rooms looking over vineyards and olive groves above the Silverado Trail, and a restaurant led by Robert Curry.
• SingleThread Inn, Healdsburg (Three Keys). Five rooms above Kyle and Katina Connaughton’s three-Michelin-star restaurant. Staying here is the surest way to secure a table.
• Solage, Auberge Collection, Calistoga (Two Keys). Newly awarded two Keys in the 2026 selection.
• Montage Healdsburg (Two Keys). A contemporary resort set among oaks and vines at the northern end of Sonoma County.

Further Afield

Michelin singled out Delaire Graff Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, as a three-Key hotel in its 2026 announcement: a wine estate with lodges on the Helshoogte Pass looking across the Cape Winelands.

How to Choose Among Michelin Key Hotels

• Treat three Keys as the destination. These hotels justify planning a trip around them. Two Keys mark exceptional bases for a wine itinerary; a single Key often signals character over grandeur.
• Book the restaurant with the room. At Les Crayères, Lafaurie-Peyraguey, Castiglion del Bosco and SingleThread, the table is part of the reason to go.
• Ask the hotel to arrange cellar visits. The best of these hotels can open doors at estates that rarely receive visitors. For an October itinerary, see Santé’s wine regions to visit in October.
• Check before you book. The selection is revised every year, and Keys can be added or withdrawn.