It’s very tempting, when thinking of winery resorts, simply to recall global legends. In California’s Napa Valley, for instance, there’s Meadowood, a sprawling 250-acre rolling estate on the outskirts of St Helena. It has 36 bedrooms, and many regulars opt for a detached guest room partly hidden among the trees, say number 5, which is close to two pools, the gym, and the spa.

Meadowood has evolved from a private club launched in the 1960s, later acquired by wine guru Bill Harlan. Harlan, now 83, is quite a character. The grandson of a theology professor at Pepperdine University, his colourful past includes hitchhiking around the entire continent of Africa, professional gaming and motorbike racing, establishing his own highly successful Harlan Estate winery, and uttering such dogmatisms as “The only way to have a partner in a vineyard is if that partner also has a long-term perspective.”

Bill Harlan remains the brains and power behind Meadowood’s adjacent sibling property, The Napa Valley Reserve, a members’ wine-growing estate described by some as a stunning golf club without any golf. What it does have, however, is vines. Over 50 acres have been planted, 90 per cent with Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest with Merlot. Members buy rows of vines to produce their own wines, and are bottled as such. Members also network at exclusive events, and they can have use of multiple facilities for private events, either bringing their own chefs or working with the resort’s talented team.

The Harlan statement is not a Napa Valley norm. 10 minutes south along the I-29 from Meadowood, for instance, lies St Supéry Estate Vineyards and Winery. It has been owned since 2015 by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, the German brothers who are best known for also owning Chanel, in all the brand’s variants.

In England, however, celebrity chef Michael Caines is the sole owner of the 17,500 vines that cover 11 acres of the stunning 28 waterside acres surrounding his Lympstone Manor. This man’s a Leonardo of a dynamo. He designed every detail of what is now a 21-room luxury country house hotel—a favourite is Kingfisher on the upper floor, looking down to Devon’s beautiful Exe Estuary.

There are over a hundred striking sculptures dotted around the grounds. Caines, whose youngest child, Isabeau, is just three and after whom the Lympstone sparkling rosé is named, has also added six double-sized en-suite shepherds’ huts that attract kids and their parents, and now he’s doing a fully-fledged spa to complement tennis and an Olympic-sized heated outdoor pool.

Around Michelins for as long as he can remember, Michael Caines already has one star for Lympstone (choose one of his paired tasting menus). If possible, by the way, coincide with a special Caines happening—he’s a renowned petrolhead and his latest event was Lympstone’s annual Celebration of Speed, with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, and lots of wine—for spectators, at least.

Priorat is one of Spain’s two major wine region—the other is Rioja—and Priorat now has its first luxury winery resort, Mas d’en Bruno. As at Lympstone Manor, wake up to a minimum 270-degree vista of fruitful vines—in this case, Grenache, farmed by some of Mas d’en Bruno’s partners. Some would choose bedrooms in the original Mas d’en Bruno farmhouse but room number 50, at the end of a modern single-floor extension, is also particularly appealing. It has a padel-sized, vine-surrounded terrace with working fire pit and a private pool, heated year-round.

It’s obviously sensible to finish in Bordeaux, and where better than Les Sources de Caudalie, known not only for its proximity to the vineyards of Château Smith Haut Lafitte, a Grand Cru Classé de Graves, but also for its outstanding beauty and spa products and its 61-room hotel—think about the Ile aux Oiseau Suite, which is like a little house on stilts over a lake, with white-and-pastel-pink interiors. Les Sources de Caudalie’s 193-acre hospitality and winery estate is owned by the Cathiard-Thomas family of sporting and supermarket fame, and is fronted by Alice Cathiard and her husband Jérome Tourbier.