Wine hotels in Europe: four places to stay, taste and explore

Three wine estates with rooms and one hotel in wine country: Maitz, Meneghetti, Ästad and Schwarzschmied, with tastings, restaurants and autumn tips.

A tasting, dinner and a short walk to bed. Staying at a wine estate lets you spend more time with its wines—and leave the drive home until another day. At Weingut Wolfgang Maitz in southern Styria, Meneghetti in Istria and Ästad Vingård in Sweden, you stay on the estate where the wine is made.

Hotel Schwarzschmied in Lana is a different kind of stay. It doesn't make wine of its own, but it has a cellar of more than 400 wines and South Tyrol's wine country on the doorstep. Four bases for a weekend where the wine sets the course.

Four places to stay in wine country

Which place suits your wine weekend?

• Maitz, for exploring vineyard differences by the glass: the inn pours wines from regional bottlings to single-vineyard selections.
• Meneghetti, for wine, olive oil and the sea in one place, with tours you can book ahead and villas for families and groups of friends.
• Ästad Vingård, for Swedish sparkling wine, a Michelin-starred restaurant and beech woods; best reached by car.
• Schwarzschmied, if you're coming by train and want a spa hotel with a winery within walking distance.

Maitz: a wine estate with rooms in southern Styria

In 1957 Josef and Maria Maitz bought a five-hectare estate in Ratsch on the South Styrian Wine Road. Wolfgang Maitz is the third generation to run the estate, and his partner Carina Kaiser looks after guests at the inn and wine hotel. The range moves from regional wines to village wines from Ehrenhausen and bottles from individual vineyard sites.

To get to know one site, start with Hochstermetzberg. The STK, a group of leading Styrian estates, places it in its top tier as a Große STK Ried. The soil is gravel, sand and marl, and the slope gets sun all day. It's planted mostly with Sauvignon Blanc, plus around 1,000 Riesling vines in memory of the founder. The estate expects these wines to keep for twenty years or more.

You don't need to book a tasting. The inn pours almost the whole range by the glass: the Hochstermetzberg, and the regional wines named after their soil – vom Kalk, vom Sand, vom Opok, meaning limestone, sand and the local marl. Visits to the estate itself are by appointment all year; call ahead.

The South Styrian Wine Road, Austria's oldest, starts right outside; in places its centre line is the border with Slovenia. More in our piece on the South Styrian Wine Road in autumn.

Meneghetti: wine and olive oil in Istria

Meneghetti is in the countryside near Bale, between Rovinj and Pula. The winery was founded in 2001. Damir Bosek leads the winemaking, working closely with the oenologist Valter Filiputti. The vines grow in the iron-rich red soil around the estate; the Malvazija comes from vineyards on white soils in northern Istria.

At Meneghetti you can plan your tasting before you travel, from a flight in the Wine Lounge to a cellar tour with six wines. The lounge, inside the winery, is open daily. Each flight of three wines comes with zaseka, a cured pork-fat spread from Istria, and venison salami. The morning Cru Tour includes an older vintage of Meneghetti Red, 2010 or 2015. At the olive oil tasting, the estate's Leccino, Buža, Rosinjola and Bjelica oils stand side by side.

You stay in the old stancija, a traditional Istrian farmstead, or in residences or villas with pools. In the evening Ante Miletić cooks with the estate's wines in mind, and the hotel has its own beach club on the coast.

Ästad Vingård: sparkling wine from Halland, Sweden

Ästad Vingård lies near Varberg, and the estate focuses on sparkling wine. It has a second fermentation in the bottle and at least 18 months of ageing before disgorging. Still wines are made only when the harvest is big enough.

The grapes are what make this work so far north. Solaris, planted since 2011, brings the high acidity that sparkling wine needs. Frühburgunder, a close relative of Pinot Noir, ripens early enough for a short summer. The vines grow inland on a gravel ridge, on the coast at Morup in sandy former seabed, and at Klagshamn, one of the warmest vineyard sites in Sweden. The vineyards are managed by Claes Bartoldsson, who has been there since the start.

At the wine bar in reception, most wines are available by the glass or in a smaller tasting glass. If you want to take wine home, you join the farm tasting first. You have to be 20 to buy, and each person can buy up to three litres per visit.

The glasshouse restaurant ÄNG has held a Michelin star since 2021. For a change of scene, visit Varberg’s seaside bathhouse, where the sauna overlooks the Kattegat—a saltwater counterpart to Ästad’s woodland spa. More on the area in our piece Southern Sweden: Maryhill Estate and Ästad Vingård.

Schwarzschmied: a hotel in South Tyrol's wine country

The Dissertori family's Hotel Schwarzschmied doesn't make its own wine. Its cellar holds more than 400 wines from many vintages, from South Tyrol and the rest of Italy. There is a house wine all the same: the Alto Rosé, which the hotel group developed with the biodynamic Kränzelhof estate in Tscherms. It's a blend of Lagrein, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Vernatsch and Cabernet Sauvignon, and you can buy it in the shop at reception.

Kränzelhof is within walking distance, about 25 minutes on foot, and the obvious outing. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons the estate shows visitors its Gothic cellar and a little of the vineyard, followed by a tasting of six wines. For older vintages, Franz von Pfeil, whose family has run the estate since 1968, hosts a rarities tasting.

For a second day, the hotel suggests the South Tyrolean Wine Road, which starts in Nals, further down the Adige valley, and runs through Bolzano to Salurn. More on Lana in our piece Lana in South Tyrol.

Autumn 2026: dates to plan around

Dates checked on 7 October 2026.

• Southern Styria: from 30 October to 14 November, Maitz serves Styrian pasture-raised goose if you order ahead. On 27 November there is an STK tasting at Gut Pössnitzberg, and the season ends on 28 November with the “Ausgratsch't is” party.
• Istria: the Istrian White Truffle Days in Buzet, Motovun and Livade run until 8 November. From 20 to 22 November, nearby Vodnjan-Dignano celebrates the new olive oil with its Young Olive Oil Days.
• Lana: until mid-November it's Törggelen season, when cellars and farm taverns serve chestnuts and new wine; it's best to book. From 15 October to 8 November, Lana, Völlan and Tisens-Prissian hold the Keschtnriggl chestnut days, with the Keschtnfestl in Völlan as the highlight.

Tastings, prices and getting there

• Maitz: estate visits all year by appointment; call ahead. At the inn a glass of wine (125 ml) costs €4.90 to €11.60. The inn opens Tue, Wed and Sat from 1pm and Thu and Fri from 5pm; the kitchen closes at 8.30pm; closed Sun and Mon. Book a table. Double rooms from €130 a night for two, with breakfast. By train to Ehrenhausen or Leibnitz, then the WEINmobil.
• Meneghetti: cellar tour with six wines at 10.30am and 4pm, about an hour, €64; Cru Tour at 10am, €85; both require advance booking. Wine Lounge daily 11am to 6pm; white flight €33, red €38 (three 50 ml glasses each); olive oil tasting €17. Dinner 6.30pm to 10.30pm. Drive in via Bale (E751), not on the unpaved road via Barbariga that some satnavs suggest.
• Ästad Vingård: farm tasting 30 minutes, SEK 175, over-18s only; book ahead. You must be 20 to buy wine, up to three litres per person per visit. Sjöparken pavilions are for guests aged 13 and over. ÄNG: dinner Mon to Fri from 5pm, tasting breakfast Tue to Sat from 8.30am; both require advance booking. Best reached by car, E6 exit 53; the ÅKTUREN bus runs in summer only.
• Schwarzschmied and Kränzelhof: Kränzelhof tour and tasting Mon and Wed, 3.30pm to about 5pm (in English on Wednesdays), €35 including the gardens; rarities tasting by arrangement. Dinner at La Fucina 6.30pm to 8.30pm. The hotel picks guests up free of charge from Burgstall/Lana station.

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