Style and design Spain

When it comes to design, the Spaniards have never been shy. They have traditionally embraced all that is bold and experimental. Their melding of cultures and aesthetics over the centuries seems to have produced willingness to experiment, both with their wines and their wineries.

Of course, a working winery must always value the practical over everything else. Though skinning the practical in something dramatic and bold not only allows for artistic and creative expression, it also allows wineries and its owners to make a statement that separates their work from that of even their closest neighbors.

If you want bold and beautiful, look to Spain, my friends. Even some of the wineries fit the description!

Marques di Riscal

The City of Wine

The desire to preserve what has served so well - not to mention helped found an icon - frankly should be impossible to overcome. More so when one considers that it functions not only as a winemaking facility, but also a repository of history: 149 vintages of Marques de Riscal. So what can a winery do then? Add on!

A Winery with a View to the Past

The Frank Gehry-designed hotel in the Marques de Riscal City of Wine is classic Gehry: dynamic, complex and colorful. This intensely modern expression, so modern in fact that the technology to build this simply didn’t exist until recently, somehow works with the existing structures. In some fairy tale way, the new and the old combine to create a vista that simultaneously exudes whimsy and style.

Lopez de Heredia

While the facility at Lopez de Heredia may not have the striking external contrast that one finds with the Hotel de Riscal, this new installation may be even more profoundly discordant.

You see, the wines of Lopez de Heredia are revered among the cognoscenti for their implacable adherence to traditional techniques and styles. These are wines that could have been produced in the 19th century - and in fact, were.

Deeply steeped in tradition, the modernist expression at Lopez de Heredia simply and efficiently conceals more of the Bodega’s history.

History Remains

The Bodega Lopez de Heredia has a long history as both an important winery, as well as an icon in the region. The classical design of the Bodega dates back to just before the turn of the 19th century.

The rapid rise to fame experienced by Lopez de Heredia was due in part to the devastating root louse Phylloxera that decimated the vineyards of Europe during this period.

But the flair and style exhibited by Lopez de Heredia, not to mention business acumen, cannot be underestimated. The striking stand, created for the 1910 Brussels world expo, that served the Bodega so well soon fell into disrepair, though the pieces were retained and recently the Bodega took it upon itself to restore the stand to its former glory.

Preserving the Past

Being rather tight on space, the stand could only be positioned outside, though its intricate woodwork could not bear such placement. And thus was born the idea to build a pavilion for this pavilion!

This external structure serves to protect the 1910 pavilion, while simultaneously serving to draw one in with its inviting wall of glass and light. The stylized façade recalls a porron, the glass carafe used to serve wine in Spain, and is a fitting addition to a Bodega that celebrates drinkability!

Bodegas Portia

Faustino, yet another famous name in Spanish wine history, has recently introduced a new Bodega in nearby Ribera del Duero. Free from any commitment (sentimental or otherwise) to an existing facility, the Faustino group was free to build from scratch, utilizing the most innovative and yet least intrusive designs and methods for their state of the art facility.

Bodegas Portia

This tri-lobed winery building looks like it’s ripped from a scene in Star Wars and would look equally at home in Spain or on Tatooine. Sleek and low-slung, hugging the earth like a stalking cat, the winery utilizes exposition, materials and design to provide for a truly state of the art winemaking experience.