Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine – a 12th-century abbey, Three MICHELIN Keys

Forty minutes north of Valladolid, where the Duero curves through vineyard country, Premonstratensian monks built a monastery in 1146 and began making wine that has never stopped since. Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine now occupies those cloisters, chapter room and hostelry: a 30-room retreat built from the carefully preserved buildings of a 12th-century abbey, as historically evocative as any château in France, thanks to the work of architect Marco Serra. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel Three Keys, and its restaurant, Refectorio, holds a MICHELIN Star and a Green Star under chef Marc Segarra. The estate is so large that it can only be properly explored on a guided Jeep tour, ending in a tasting in the old winery's barrel rooms. Little here has been simplified for comfort; rather, comfort has been built around eight centuries of silence, stone and vine.

01The house

The monastery of Santa María de Retuerta was founded in 1146 by Doña Mayor, fourth daughter of Count Pedro Ansúrez, the nobleman credited with founding Valladolid, part of a wave of monastic refoundations along the Duero. Vines arrived with the monks, and medieval deeds record donations of land and vineyards alongside the church's own foundation stones. The abbey's wine fortunes rose through the 17th century, then collapsed after the 19th-century disentailment and the final grubbing-up of the vines in 1953, until 1988, when the Sandoz group bought the estate and resolved to replant it. Vigneron Pascal Delbeck, known for Château Ausone and Bélair in Saint-Émilion, joined the project in 1994 and designed the winery completed in 1996, the same year winemaker Ángel Anocíbar took charge of vineyard and cellar. The hotel threads through the same stone corridors, and the restoration of its architectural heritage was awarded an Europa Nostra prize for conservation.

02Rooms and suites

Of the hotel's 30 rooms, 27 are doubles — one adapted for guests with reduced mobility — and three are suites, spread through more than 8,000 square metres of the old monastery hostelry. Peace and quiet define every morning, when the sunrise can be seen from each and every one of the bedrooms, all meticulously restored, with a unique style and views over a sea of vineyards. Categories run from the Classic Double Room through Superior doubles, some with garden access, up to the Junior Suite, Master Suite and a Two-Bedroom Master Suite. Throughout, the furniture mixes modern pieces with 15th-century, Renaissance and Baroque collections, and the most recent addition to the art on display is a sculpture by Eduardo Chillida.

Insider tip

Book via the estate's own reservations team; Refectorio and the spa are best arranged well ahead of arrival.

03Where to eat

Refectorio occupies the monks' old dining hall, under a vaulted ceiling of pure Gothic style, with a 17th-century frieze depicting the Last Supper presiding over the room. Chef Marc Segarra, born in Reus in 1987, passed through Tierra, Nerua in Bilbao, Mugaritz, Rodrigo de la Calle's kitchens and El Celler de Can Roca before taking charge here in February 2016. Refectorio has held a MICHELIN Star since 2014 and carries two Repsol Suns, alongside a MICHELIN Green Star for its creative, locally-sourced cooking. The restaurant opens Wednesday to Saturday for dinner and Sunday for lunch, with a smart casual dress code.

For simpler appetites there is Vinoteca, a contemporary Castilian tavern serving a diverse selection of dishes, tapas and small plates made from the region's high-quality ingredients alongside the estate's own wines. In summer, Calicata Terroir Bar opens inside the winery itself, pouring Abadía Retuerta's Pago wines a few steps from the barrels they were aged in.

04The bar

Hospedería is the house's late-evening room, built around comfort food and signature cocktails rather than tasting menus — the place to close a long dinner with something stirred rather than poured, before the short walk back across the cloister to bed.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Santuario Wellness & Spa is built into the monastery's former stables, below ground but lit by entrances that bring in natural daylight across more than a thousand square metres. Its water is drawn from a well 120 metres deep, softened and passed through reverse osmosis before being held in a 120,000-litre tank, close to the quality of natural mineral water. A private Spa Suite has its own sauna, steam bath, Jacuzzi and dressing room; there is an indoor pool lit by a skylight and fed by a small cascade, and an outdoor pool that looks straight across vineyards and lavender to the 12th-century abbey itself.

06The estate and neighbourhood

The vineyards around the hotel run to 193 hectares within a 700-hectare estate on the Duero's northern bank, farmed under the winery's own Protected Designation of Origin, granted by the European Commission. Abadía Retuerta's vineyard has been placed in the Top 50 of the World's Best Vineyards, ranking 29th — reason enough to book the Jeep tour that ends in the barrel room. Sardón de Duero itself is a village of a few hundred people; the appeal here is empty vineyard roads and the river, not nightlife. Valladolid, with its Plateresque façades, is under an hour away by road; Madrid is reachable within two hours by car or about an hour by high-speed train.

07Making the most of a stay

Breakfast is à la carte and included in every room rate; guests also have a shuttle service on request, bicycles for their exclusive use, a pillow menu and a 24-hour butler service. Ask the butler to book the vineyard Jeep tour early, before the day's heat settles over the vines, and to hold a table at Refectorio on a Wednesday or Thursday, when the dining room is quieter than at the weekend. The kitchen periodically invites a guest MICHELIN-starred chef to cook alongside Marc Segarra for a four-handed tasting menu — reason enough, on its own, to time a visit around the calendar.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.