May 1, 2007

US & Canada | US | Virginia

Vintage Virginia

By Mark Jolly

A pre-revolutionary settlement gets a dose of new world-style.

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On Thursday and Friday, Queen Elizabeth II will visit Williamsburg and Jamestown, Virginia, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the first English settlement in America. But the royal trip won’t be the only touch of colonial glamour to grace the area. On May 20, luxury country house Wedmore Place opens its doors. Set in a 300-acre farm near Jamestown Island and just three miles from Williamsburg’s historic center, the European-styled chateau might just steal the crown for secluded southern elegance.

The latest Small Luxury Hotels member is its own world, an entirely modern mansion built in a Virginia vineyard originally settled in 1615. Each of 25 rooms and three suites are individually decorated to reflect a particular place and era of the old world (think: Spanish-tiled Andalusia, Corinthian-pillared Greece, and a Venetian suite with 20-foot-tall fresco-painted ceilings). The cobblestone courtyard features a fountain imported from Provence, and guests can enjoy an onsite spa and pool, plus nearby walking and biking trails. What can you expect from Wedmore? Put it this way: the estate’s owners, the Duffelers, founded Williamsburg Winery on these grounds in 1985. It’s now Virginia’s most successful winery, accounting for one quarter of the state’s wine production.