Guggenheim at Bilbao

Well, I didn’t make it to the Marqués de Riscal winery…but I ended up at another Frank Gehry building: the Guggenheim at Bilbao. And what a astonishing building this is. Definitely worth a trip to Bilbao.

On the wine side I do not have to report much. We went to El Rogelio, a little restaurant mentioned with a bib gourmand in the Guide Michelin. Lovely food but they need to do something about the poisonous green paint that is used to cover their walls. I ordered an albariño of Bodegas Martin Códax. Plain simple and satisfying wine. Nevertheless, I was disappointed by the small range of white wines on the wine list. Being close to Rioja, it are the reds that get all the attention on the list.

However in a city where fish (merluza (=hake), bacalao (=cod)) is the specialty, you would hope for a more extensive list of white wines. Better next time.

Have a nice wine with fish today!
Bart

Picture: Dialogue between Tulips of Jeff Koons and Guggenheim

If you enjoyed this post, make my day and buy me a glass of wine.

September 17, 2007 | Filed Under Architecture, Spain | 1 Comment

Marqués de Riscal and Frank Gehry

Maybe you did not noticed yet, but also wine makers (certainly the big ones) tend to have great building projects. This is a project from the Bodegas Herederos del Marqués de Riscal, located at Rioja, Spain.

This project houses the company’s offices, wine museum, tasting rooms, conference rooms and a luxury hotel with 14 distinct rooms. The architect on duty is the incredible Frank Gehry, known from the Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao. Oh boy, did I wish I had the money to order a house from him :-).