Marqués de Riscal

The history of Marqués de Riscal begins in 1858, when Camilo Hurtado de Amézaga, Marqués de Riscal, founded one of the oldest wineries in Rioja following Bordeaux winemaking techniques learned in France. For over a century, the winery pioneered the region, from introducing French oak barrels to the extended aging that defined the Rioja style. In 2006, the winery completed its visionary turn with the opening of the building commissioned from Frank Gehry to redefine wine tourism in Spain, thus giving birth to the City of Wine and the hotel that now crowns the vineyards of Elciego.

Frank Gehry, who grew up in Toronto, accepted the commission after years of insistence from the winery. The undulating titanium ribbons are not whimsical: the pink evokes the color of red wine, the gold the mesh that wraps Marqués de Riscal bottles, and the silver their capsule. The building seems to float above the vineyards.

Elciego is a village of barely a thousand inhabitants where time seems to stand still among vineyards and century-old wineries. La Rioja Alavesa, with its privileged climate between the Sierra de Cantabria and the Ebro, produces some of the most prized wines in the world. A few kilometers away, Laguardia preserves its walled medieval layout with cellars excavated beneath the houses, while nearby Haro houses the great Rioja wine houses in its Station District. It is a landscape that has been shaped for centuries by wine culture, where every hill and every valley has its own name.