TRAVEL
LEGACY AND LUXURY IN LANGUEDOC
CHÂTEAU CAPITOUL,
NARBONNE, FRANCE BY SAMANTHA READY
There are places you arrive at knowing they’ ll stay with you- and then there’ s Château Capitoul, which imprints itself somewhere deeper. Perched on a sun-kissed hilltop just outside Narbonne, surrounded by endless rows of vines that ripple in the breeze like green velvet, it’ s the kind of escape that makes time feel elastic. Everything slows. Everything glows. Everything is just so considered.
From a distance, the château appeared like a dream conjured from a French fairytale: terracotta turrets, soft stone walls brushed with golden sun, cypresses standing like sentinels at the gates. But the beauty of Capitoul runs far deeper than its Instagramperfect silhouette. It’ s a place of story, of legacy and of a renovation so painstakingly beautiful it deserves its own novel.
The château’ s transformation is thanks to Karl and Anita O’ Hanlon, a dynamic Irish duo with a vision that feels more romance than business. Together with the Bonfils family, a sixth-generation winemaking dynasty from the Languedoc that trace their roots back to their matriarchal great, great, great grandmother who pushed winemaking boundaries in Northern Africa, they took on the once crumbling 19th-century property with the dream of bringing it back to life, not just as a wine estate, but as a luxurious, quietly dramatic retreat with soul. A vision that’ s now been realised in spectacular fashion.
The original château has been sensitively and spectacularly restored, each room layered with elegance, mood and modern comfort, while keeping the bones of the building exposed and celebrated. Mosaic-tiled floors, tall shutters, sweeping staircases and elegant salons have all been given new life, furnished with confident restraint and exquisite taste. Around it, villas have been added( another O’ Hanlon vision realised as their own carefree coupledom transcended into parenthood, recognising families too would appreciate the slowness of life here, made all the easier with a chilled glass of rosè, of course)- scattered discreetly in the hills atop the vines, offering families and groups space to breathe, with private pools and cinematic views over the Étang de Bages lagoon. Our suite, tucked within the château itself, felt palatial yet warm; plush linens, soft lighting, a roll-top bath in the main bedroom and triple-aspect, floor-to-ceiling shuttered windows that opened to the sound of birdsong and the scent of garrigue herbs drifting in from the fields.
At the heart of Château Capitoul is its wine, made on-site and very much woven into the experience, from tastings in the cellar which appears like an Alice in Wonderland moment at the back of the on-site bottleshop, to the bottles that greet you at dinner and the neat rows of vines that line every vista. Sipping a chilled glass of the estate’ s rosé beside the infinity pool as dusk fell over the vineyards remains one of those quietly perfect moments I’ ll return to in memory again and again.
Dinner that evening was at Méditerranéo, the château’ s fine-dining restaurant under the stewardship of chef Valère Diochet. It’ s hard to imagine a more elegant space: stone walls softened by linen drapes, candlelight flickering over glasses and a kind of reverent hush as the food arrives. We opted for the Discovery Menu and what followed was nothing short of Michelin-quality magic. Each course played with flavour, temperature and texture with confidence and whimsy, from the amuse bouche mastery of‘ olive’- a Heston-style piece of food theatre, olive in appearance but actually a cocoa shell filled with the most divine tahini-laced hummus, the deep black shell courtesy of rich leek powder, to a dish of langoustine in a broth of green strawberries and kaffir lime that danced with acid and depth, and a duck breast lacquered with local
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