Hotel Monverde hotel - Lixa, Portugal

Amidst 30 hectares of active vineyards on northern Portugal’s Rota da Vinho – or Green Wine Route – the family-run Quinta da Lixa winery has expanded to include a new hotel for the ‘oenoe-curious’. Enlisting the skills of local architect Fernando Coelho, beyond the estate’s renovated main house, the ruins of two worker’s homes have been transformed into a sequence of surprises that include 15 guestrooms, a restaurant, bar, spa and two swimming pools. In a palette of autumn russet and springtime green (precision matched to the vineyard’s seasonal leaves) the architecture, which is created out of granite and shale and clad with Portuguese pine, pays respect to the landscape, inviting guests to immerse themselves in its fruits.