Rioja in the News: SF Chronicle on Rioja Architecture
Even though I found her opening comments on the width of her spa-issued undergarments a little alarming, Yvonne Michie Horn’s piece on Rioja architecture in this past Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle travel section is nevertheless the most comprehensive article on new winery architecture in Rioja to appear in a major American publication to date.
“Spanish Wineries’ Star Power: From Frank Gehry to Santiago Calatrava, the world’s top architects are using Rioja as their canvas” features Gehry’s hotel at Marqués de Riscal, Calatrava’s undulating Bodegas Ysios, Iñaki Aspiazu’s hilltop glass temple at Bodegas Baigorri, Phillipe Maziéres’ marriage of form and function at Viña Real, and Zaha Hadid’s pavilion at Bodegas R. Lopez de Heredia.
Missing from the story is an explanation of why Rioja? (the “Guggenehim effect, the role of corporate wealth, the wider context of Spain’s cultural flowering, etc.) Still, Horn’s close look at design in “one of the most lovely and least touched viticultural areas of the world” is well written, packed with excellent practical information for adventurous eno-tourists, and definitely worth checking out.