Bodegas kieken - Winelife

A little winery chooses a renowned architect for new construction. This time we look in Spain at their modern, sometimes megalomaniac bodegas. Visit them during your sunshine holiday, for a tour, tasting, overnight stay or just a nice photo.
Text: Marjolein Schuman | Image: Shutterstock/Marriot

When it comes to wine cellars under architecture in Europe, Spain has been pioneering, especially the Rioja region. In the New Wine World, they were there even earlier. With the growth of viticulture and international wine trade, major producers across the ocean needed space for storage and export logistics. Century-old chateaus were not there anyway. They invested in megalomaniac building projects that changed the landscape. Because image also came into play, it had to look kek. From the 1980s, there was a great building boom in wine country, and around the turn of the century Europe joined in in full force.

Undulating roof panels

In Spain, after his designs for wineries in Canada and California had been rejected, world-renowned architect Frank Gehry was able to do his trick with undulating, shiny roof panels. Very boldly, Bodegas Marqués de Rival, which is one of the oldest wineries in Rioja, hired him to design the new building, which took years. They had set themselves the goal of creating a ciudad del vino to create a sort of pilgrimage site for wine lovers.

Other bodegas took a cue from this. Bodegas Ysios has a spectacularly vast undulating roof that contrasts with the mountains of the Sierra de Cantabria. Moreover, an architectural and technical masterpiece is Bodegas Valdemar. Definitely worth a visit with an overnight stay in summer too, and you drink the smoothest dark Tempranillos in Rioja just chilled.