Decanter's Dream Destination: Badrutt's Palace Hotel in St Moritz

Badrutt's Palace Hotel in St Moritz: Not just for winter...

A warm breeze wafts through the dense forest below carrying the scent of stone pines and wildflowers. Meadows burst with colour as butterflies flit among the gentians and edelweiss. Hiking, mountain-biking, river-rafting and horse-riding is the order of the day here.

This is not The Alps that most visitors are familiar with, but one that is increasingly sought – the fresh mountain air and lush scenery a welcome respite from the baking beaches of southern Europe. Hello, summer in St Moritz.

Sure, the ski season is still the main draw. In fact, Badrutt’s Palace Hotel and its legendary founder Casper Badrutt put the year-round holiday-in-the-mountains on the map for tourists back in 1896, when it first opened 130 years ago.

Arguably Switzerland’s showiest winter resort, boasting a visitors’ book packed with famous guests, from regulars such as Alfred Hitchcock, to King Charles and Elizabeth Taylor, hotel bookings are also buoyant in the summer months.

How to get there

The two-hour drive from nearest airport, Milan Malpensa, is worth the trip alone as it skirts majestic Lake Como before climbing the foothills into the Alps proper via the Maloja Pass, with its thrilling hairpin bends.

That said, 80% of the hotel’s guests prefer to fly in by private jet, landing on one of the world’s highest, oldest runways just three miles from Badrutt’s Palace.

With an altitude of 1,850m (6,053 feet), the hotel sits on the edge of St Moritz Lake in the scenic Engadine Valley, a turreted Gothic Revival landmark oozing glamour and old-world charm, yet with plenty of stylish, contemporary accents to broaden its appeal, including a vast state-of-the-art spa with a panoramic view to beat them all.

Inside Badrutt's Palace Hotel

Its lobby, the baronial Grand Hall, dubbed ‘the living room of St Moritz’, plays host to guests who vie for the best seats in front of the huge picture window that perfectly frames the lake and mountains beyond.

There, they sip morning coffee, glug Champagne throughout the day (chosen from 80 different producers), and down cocktails in the evening, before enjoying supper there, or in one of its 10 other restaurants that cleverly balance fine dining with casual.

With 159 elegant, traditional bedrooms in the iconic main property (think antiques, chandeliers and large marble bathrooms) and 25 bedrooms in the sleek, contemporary Serlas Wing behind, it has plenty of guests to feed, who rub shoulders with equally moneyed St Moritz residents, among them the Heineken family, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad and fashion titan Maurizio Gucci.

Dining at Badrutt's Palace

Among the dishes to be enjoyed are:

• Yellowtail sashimi jalapeño at La Coupole from celebrated Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa;
• Truffle and Champagne-laced cheese fondue at coveted mountainside eatery Paradiso;
• Tableside-prepared pressed duck at smart dining spot Le Relais;
• Crisp pizza with shaved fresh truffles at the hotel's hottest tables at Heuboden;
• Wildly popular butter chicken in Le Grand Hall itself from chef Jatinder Kumar.

After dinner

And when you’re done dining, there’s the hotel’s nightclub to slink into, King’s Social, with a menu overseen by top British chef Jason Atherton; and cigars to puff on in the hotel’s storied Renaissance Bar, where mixologist Matteo Oddo is currently shaking up a range of cocktails using a stash of forgotten wines and spirits (mostly ports, whiskies, brandies and vermouths) found behind a false wall in the cellar.

Palace Side-Sledge, anyone? It’s a riff on a Sidecar, made with 1960 vintage Cognac and Grand Marnier, yours for £132.

A treasure-filled wine cellar

And talking of the cellar, a candlelit tour is a popular activity for wine-savvy guests, who are guided around by ebullient head sommelier Cristina Iuculano as she points out its oldest, rarest bottles, including 1900 Château Lafite, and reveals her latest finds, before leading a tasting with canapes to match in the cosy sheepskin-decked Krug Stübli.

Yup, Badrutt’s Palace is a Krug ambassador, with large format bottles among the biggest sellers on the 1900-label list, the shelves groaning with some 35,000 bottles.

'It’s the third largest wine list in Switzerland. Our guests know what they want, and what they’re talking about,' declares Iuculano, who will also organise private excursions to renowned Swiss winemakers, chosen from the 60 or so producers she trumpets on her list.

Summer picnic

Another popular wine-themed activity is the hotel’s summer picnic on Corviglia Mountain, looming above the town.

So, armed with a picnic backpack laden with locally sourced ingredients – ours including coveted local cheese Engadiner Bergkäse, bread from famous baker Eigenbroetler and a bottle of Pinot Noir from one of Iuculano’s favourite Swiss producers, Donatsch, in nearby Bündner Herrschaft (about an hour and half from St Moritz), we hit the meadow on the upper slopes as a Golden Eagle soars high above, trying to forget that it’s our last day.