The Hotel Marqués de Riscal turns 20: the 1929 bottle that won over Frank Gehry in Rioja

Opened on 10 October 2006 in Elciego, amid the vineyards of Rioja, the Hotel Marqués de Riscal has turned 20, an anniversary the house marked in a statement dated 26 October 2026. Its titanium ribbons designed by Frank Gehry now welcome some 13,500 guests a year. To mark the occasion, the bodega is paying tribute to the architect, who died in December 2025, with a label featuring a watercolour of the hotel.

☰Contents

1. A 1929 bottle to win over Gehry
2. Titanium ribbons in wine, gold and silver
3. 61 rooms, 10 of them suites, across two buildings
4. What’s on the menu with Francis Paniego?
5. The Club Jean Pineau, a tribute to Frank Gehry
6. 13,500 guests a year and a Michelin Key

A 1929 bottle to win over Gehry

The whole story fits in a glass. To persuade Frank Gehry to design a hotel in the middle of their vineyards, his hosts opened a bottle of 1929 Marqués de Riscal, the year the architect was born. The gamble paid off with the opening on 10 October 2006, alongside the launch of a wine, the Frank Gehry Selection, whose first vintage is 2001 and which is still on sale twenty years later.

The anniversary takes on added meaning: Frank Gehry, the 1989 Pritzker Prize winner, died in December 2025. “The Hotel Marqués de Riscal is an architectural jewel, the fruit of the innovative and daring spirit that has defined the bodega throughout its history,” said Alejandro Aznar, chairman of Marqués de Riscal, who wants to “stay at the forefront” while preserving the house’s identity.

Titanium ribbons in wine, gold and silver

The building plays on asymmetric volumes crowned by titanium ribbons in shades of wine, gold and silver. Gehry described it as “a wonderful creature, with hair flying in every direction, throwing itself onto the vineyards”. As early as 2007, the hotel won the Villégiature award for hotel architecture, and it features in our selection of the world’s most beautiful design hotels.

61 rooms, 10 of them suites, across two buildings

The hotel has 61 rooms, including 10 suites, split between the Gehry building and the spa building; not all of them face the vineyards, as some look out over the village of Elciego. It belongs to The Luxury Collection, a Marriott brand, and is home to a Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa.

What’s on the menu with Francis Paniego?

The fine-dining restaurant serves signature cuisine overseen by chef Francis Paniego. Two other venues round out the offer: 1860 Tradición and the Vinoteca & Bistró.

The Club Jean Pineau, a tribute to Frank Gehry

The only real novelty of this anniversary, the Club Jean Pineau was recently unveiled. Its first label reproduces a watercolour of the hotel, as a tribute to Gehry. Joining means buying the contents of a barrel of Reserva, that is 252 bottles of 75 cl with a personalised label. The price has not been disclosed.

The wine comes from the house’s old vines in Elciego, mainly Tempranillo more than 50 years old, with a high proportion of Graciano. It spends 24 months in French and American oak barrels, then at least 15 months in bottle. The club is named after Jean Pineau, the French cellar master who arrived four years after the house was founded in 1858 and introduced Bordeaux methods and barrel ageing.

13,500 guests a year and a Michelin Key

Twenty years on, the hotel welcomes around 13,500 guests a year, mainly from the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom and Brazil, while the Ciudad del Vino, the house’s “City of Wine”, draws more than 100,000 visitors a year. It has held a Michelin Key since 2024.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stayed in 2007, Gwyneth Paltrow in 2008 while filming Spain… On the Road Again, and director Álex de la Iglesia shot the film El cuarto pasajero here. On 5 June 2025, the bodega hosted the central event of the Rioja appellation’s centenary, presided over by King Felipe VI: fifteen bottles of the 1925 vintage were opened.

Its Botellería keeps wines dating back to the first vintage of 1862, and both the hotel and the bodega are fitted with solar panels, against a backdrop of regenerative agriculture. In the same region, read our article on the Palacio de los Ángeles, which opened in Haro, in Rioja.