Hoping to launch the La Rioja wine region into the same prestigious galaxy as the Napa Valley and Burgundy, the Marqués de Riscal winery commissioned Frank Gehry to design a major eye-candy hotel that would tempt tourists south from Bilbao (an hour and a half away) and its Guggenheim. The shocker here, though, is that only a few of the hotel’s rooms are actually in the Gehry building (the best are 101 to 104 and 112, 114, and 115). The rest are in a bunkerlike annex reached by a glass-enclosed bridge across a parking lot. If you want to study Gehry’s Wizard of Oz creation, book 116, 117, or 118, which have stunning views of the mother ship. And if cutting-edge architecture is your modus vivendi for plunging into this dry, craggy corner of Spain, you definitely do not want rooms 128 to 144, which overlook a barren field gouged from the hill that was cut into to create the site. Despite the fact that it’s part of Starwood’s Luxury Collection, in-room decor looks more like upmarket college dorm, with white walls, eucalyptus parquet, and lots of laminated blond-poplar furniture. All that rescues the rooms from total blandness are the Gehry-designed wall-mounted “cloud” lamps on either side of each bed.
WHAT’S THE BIG WOW? You harvest the thrill of this place before you even check in. Arriving in the sleepy (and rather dour) town of Elciego, the first view of the huge tangle of tricolored (pink, silver, gold) titanium ribbons, which rises above the original Marques de Riscal winery complex, is a showstopper. As always, Gehry’s architecture is just plain fun. Otherwise, aside from the shocking red toilet paper in the restaurant bathroom, a real Salvador Dalí joke, fantasy is scarce on the ground.
LIKED BEST: The young staff is smart, attractive, and eager to please, and despite the dècor, rooms are very comfortable, with brand-name designer fittings—Artemide lamps and B & B Italia brown leather couches. Oversize bathrooms faced in Brazilian maritaca granite invite a long soak with a glass of Rioja and a book. You’ll also be tempted to steal the fabulous Gehry-designed-for-Knoll cast-aluminum chairs and table on the terraces. The library-fumoir on the third floor of the main building is stuffed with books and games and is that rarest of hotel public spaces—a room you actually want to linger in. The hotel makes a good base from which to discover the La Rioja wine region.
LIKED LEAST: The wine-cellar tour is a bore (aren’t they always?), and much-touted chef Francis Paniego’s cooking is tasty but too similar to what you’d find in any good Greek diner in New York. It’s also a letdown that the short wine list only sells Marques de Riscal wines. What’s really off-putting, though, is the Fort Knox security. The whole complex is surrounded by a fence (it’s almost impossible to find the actual entrance to the place), and elevators only work with key cards, a touch you’d expect in a low-security women’s prison. Frank Gehry aside, room rates are too stiff for this humble rural setting. Finally, double beds are strangely short if you’re more than six feet tall.
WHO SHOULD STAY THERE? Architecture fiends and oenophiles eager to seriously discover La Rioja.
WOULD YOU GO BACK? No—this is a bragging-rights hotel. Once is a hoot, but once is enough.
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