For this week’s spotlight segment, we had the opportunity to write up a property that we’ve experienced for ourselves. Occasionally, clubs invite us to spend a night or two at their properties to get an idea of what a stay might be like for their members. While we’re not under the illusion that our experience of these clubs mirrors the experience of a member exactly, visits like these do give us a chance to see the properties, sample amenities and investigate first hand how the clubs measure up to their marketing materials. Recently, the Orchard at Carneros Inn, a luxury fractional offering in Napa Valley, extended us such an invitation, and we spent a weekend on the property enjoying their hospitality.

Wine country is a favorite getaway for Bay Area residents. Proximity makes it an obvious choice for those of us in San Francisco, but the cadre of local vineyards, small and large, scattered among the rolling fields of rural Napa Valley are enough to draw anyone looking for a dose of pinot with their relaxing weekend. The Carneros Inn is set at the southern end of the valley; its own little compound surrounded by bucolic farm lands.

What’s For Sale

The Orchard is the name of the fractional community at the Carneros Inn, made up of 17 two-bedroom cottages clustered in their own area of the resort. The 1,750 square foot homes are sold in one-tenth slices, and go for $300,000 per share with annual dues running $8,100. This scores you three weeks of reserved use per year, and unlimited space-available use.

Cottages have a modern aesthetic and feature a host of amenities the likes of which you’d expect from a high-end resort—think heated limestone floors in the bathrooms, private in-ground spas in the outdoor living areas, an indoor gas—and outdoor wood-burning—fireplace and, of course, a full kitchen with Viking range. But the presence of smaller, more thoughtful touches—cottages are named after local land owners and the images decorating the walls are prints of antique photographs collected from local families—really sets the Orchard apart and makes it feel like a fixture in the community, rather than a development of luxury homes set down on top of it. A local firm, Shopworks, designed the cottages and conceptualized the interiors for the entire resort, and the social hub of the resort is a stomping ground for locals as well as guests.

What You Get

Possibly the most notable perks of ownership at Carneros aren’t in the cottages themselves, but lie in the resort amenities at hand. The compound has its own spa, offering a plethora of treatments featuring local ingredients and even boasting its own signature fragrance, developed by providing local families with mason jars and asking them to fill them with their favorite scents from the area.

And then of course there’s FARM, the on-site restaurant; a sophisticated and elegant establishment where local ingredients and vintages are highlighted to great effect. Bikes are available for tooling around the property, and bellmen on golf carts are available to cart you home if you’ve tasted a few too many bottles at dinner. The resort also offers a boutique, a small grocer, a second more casual restaurant, and both a family pool and an adults-only infinity edged number. The social areas are often bustling, and offer a surprising contrast to the very private feel of the cottages.

The Halogen Guides Take

What can we say? We like the Orchard at the Carneros Inn. The local touches, great restaurant and comprehensive spa make it a stand out, and all of the standard amenities are accounted for. Add to that the undertones of sustainable farming and architecture—floors at FARM are made from recycled railroad ties and suites at the hotel are modular pre-fab units—and there’s a lot to laud.

That said, the Orchard might not be a perfect fit for everyone. The cottages, with their two-bedroom layouts, king-sized beds and grown-up atmosphere, give off a decidedly couples-weekend vibe. If a family retreat is what you have in mind, these Napa love-nests might not be your best bet.

And there were a few things we would have liked to see in the cottages; for instance an iPod dock so we could listen to our own tunes over the integrated Bose speaker system, or a recycling bin to stay in step with the resort’s green efforts. A final snafu was an owner’s compendium that sometimes didn’t match the controls in the home (instructions for shower fixtures that were different than the ones in our bathrooms and a note saying that our in-ground spa was not yet operational when it in fact was working, caused a bit of confusion), but overall it didn’t affect our ability to kick back with a glass of wine and take in the vineyard views.

The Orchard at Carneros Inn is one of two fractional options in the Napa area. The Lodges at Calistoga Ranch, further north, offer luxury residences in the Auberge-run resort with two weeks of planned use. Several destination clubs also have homes in the valley, including Solstice and Quintess, LRW.