Marques de Riscal, La Rioja

Hotel. All you need is one look at the pictures and you know that this is something completely different. A modern hotel built on top of an old winery, Marques de Riscal is the perfect synthesis of traditional and new. In an effort to create a 21st century chateau, internationally acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry joined the project to design the winery’s hotel. For Gehry, the only natural approach revolved around evoking as many emotions and sensations as possible. Words cannot describe this titanium structure that reflects the signature colors of Marques de Riscal’s brilliant wine. In all of the hotel’s 43 rooms, guests live inside this structure that remains in unison with the land. More than just the hotel, the Marques de Riscal winery is transforming into the “Ciudad del Vino,” City of Wine, where people from all over the world can come stay at the hotel, explore the historic cellars, savor the cuisine and revive in the vinotherapy spa.

Wine. The winery’s first cellar emerged in 1858 and since then has provided a space that acts as the living history of Marques de Riscal. The Cathedral lies in the heart of the oldest cellar providing a space for all of the vintages of the winery’s 140-year history. The dirty floors and musky air serves its own purpose. Spiders catch the flies that threaten the wine, while mold encases the bottles keeping them cool.


Dining. Mirroring the success of Chef Francis Paniego’s Echaurren, Marques de Riscal has brought its own version of the Michelin-star winning restaurant to the hotel. Headed by Chef Jose Ramon Pinero, the nouvelle and traditional combinations compliment the architecture of Frank O. Gehry. Pinero studied and trained under Paniego yielding him the perfect candidate to enrich the restaurant at Marques de Riscal.