Auberge du Soleil, Auberge Collection

In 1981 the French restaurateur Claude Rouas and his partner Bob Harmon opened Napa Valley's first fine-dining restaurant on Rutherford Hill, conceived as a taste of Provence in California wine country. Its success brought the rooms, the 'inn of the sun', five years later. The hotel climbs a terraced hillside among 33 acres of old olive and oak trees, looking across the vineyards of the valley floor to the Mayacamas Mountains. Rooms and suites are set in maisons named after towns in the south of France, with residential interiors, French doors and private terraces facing the view. Robert Curry, executive chef since 2005, holds a MICHELIN star for Californian cooking of seasonal local produce, served on a terrace that takes in the whole valley, with a wine list of some 15,000 bottles. The Bar offers a less formal lunch, or dinner at sunset. The spa, for hotel guests only, is arranged around a courtyard of mature olive trees and three stone fountains aligned with Mount Veeder, with soaking pools, steam and sauna, and there is a terraced pool, tennis and morning movement classes every day. There are 50 rooms and suites, and the hotel holds Three MICHELIN Keys.