Rioja Spain Travel: Why the Marqués de Riscal winery and hotel are worth the trip...and the splurge.
Wine is art. Architecture is art. When you combine the two, you get Marqués de Riscal — a historic winery turned architectural marvel in Spain’s Rioja region. Most articles about Rioja mention Marqués de Riscal, both the winery and the luxury hotel, and this is another one, because it’s genuinely worth writing about.
I had the privilege of visiting the winery and staying at the five-star hotel in the northern part of Rioja, in the historic Basque village, Elciego. Marqués de Riscal is truly an architectural gem, an exceptional winery, and perhaps the finest hotel I’ve ever experienced.
But first, a little history…
Marqués de Riscal, established in 1858 by Guillermo Hurtado de Amézaga, stands as one of Rioja’s oldest family-owned wineries. After years studying winemaking in Bordeaux, Amézaga returned to his Elciego estate determined to apply French techniques to Spanish vines. His pioneering use of barrique aging—a Spanish first—revolutionized the country’s wine production. The resulting wines earned numerous awards and became the preferred choice of Spanish kings, specifically King Alfonso XII. As his wines gained popularity, counterfeits emerged, prompting Amézaga to develop the distinctive wire netting still used on Spanish bottles today to prevent forgeries
Why do wines from Spain have gold wire netting on wine bottles? The short answer is that it was a pre-tech way to try to protect wine from counterfeiting. Today we have microchips and bar codes to help prevent counterfeiting, but pre-tech wines weren’t so fortunate.
Pre-tech winemakers were seriously challenged with people refilling empty/used bottles they produced with lower quality wines and reselling them as the winemaker’s product. That could – and would – hurt a winemakers name and overall brand.
The first vintage of Marqués de Riscal was in 1862, it is considered the first bottled Rioja wine ever produced. A few bottles still remain in the winery’s historic bottle cellar which contains bottles of Marqués de Riscal dating from the first vintage of the bodega up to today. It is likely the largest collection of Rioja wines in the world.
In 1999, the Amézag family commissioned renowned architect Frank Gehry, who is responsible for the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, to design an avant-garde building for the winery’s office space. However, when they saw Gehry’s striking design, they reconsidered and transformed it into a luxury hotel. The hotel now houses two restaurants under the culinary leadership of renowned chef Francis Paniego. The hotel is also home to a Caudalie vinothérapie spa.
Let’s Talk About the Winery…
Established in 1858, Marqués de Riscal is one of Rioja’s oldest wineries and remains remarkably family-owned in today’s consolidating wine world. It’s also substantial in scale, producing about 10 million bottles annually, with 6 million coming from Rioja itself. Unlike many smaller Spanish wineries, Marqués de Riscal has global reach—exporting over 60 percent of its production to 110+ countries, including the United States. If you fall in love with their wines, you can always find more at home.
The winery sits on the property alongside many of its vineyards, with the hotel literally nestled among the vines. The panoramic views encompass the ancient medieval town and rolling vineyard hills—almost too postcard-perfect to believe.
I highly recommend joining one of the group wine tasting tours at Marqués de Riscal, which isn’t something I normally endorse. When you understand winemaking, repetitive cellar tours can feel tedious. But Marqués de Riscal’s “old part” is genuinely fascinating—you walk through cellars and tunnels built in the 1800s. The architectural contrast between the original buildings and modern facilities is captivating, at least for this wine nerd.
The tasting concludes in an air-conditioned room featuring a handful of wines and local cheeses. (Air conditioning is somewhat rare in Spain and feels luxurious during summer months, making the indoor setting especially welcome.)
After the tasting, you can purchase wine for shipping or packing in the lovely, spacious guest center, or linger at the wine bar on the patio or inside. I particularly enjoyed this flexibility since we hadn’t tasted Marqués de Riscal’s full portfolio—The Husband and I shared several small glasses of other vintages.
Marqués de Riscal is clearly the main draw to this corner of Rioja, evidenced by the steady stream of tour buses during the day. Most buses visit the winery then depart for their next destination, which makes sense given that Elciego is home to just 500 locals, the hotel, two restaurants, a small hotel, church and a few tasting rooms.
We attempted to explore the village, visiting one of the two restaurants, 1583, which boasted an appealing patio overlooking the town and Marques de Riscal’s vines. Unfortunately, they don’t open until 1:30pm with a limited menu, and weren’t serving full meals that day—only Spanish tortillas until dinner. Disappointing, to say the least. We retreated to the hotel and didn’t venture out again until checkout, deciding to embrace its luxury and views of the mountains and village. (There’s a significant wine tourism opportunity here waiting for the right entrepreneur.)
The Marqués de Riscal Hotel
While Marqués de Riscal remains a family-owned winery, run by the 5th generation, the family chose to partner with Marriott International to operate the hotel while retaining ownership. This arrangement delivers the quality service standards of a Marriott property while maintaining the authentic local character that sets it apart from traditional chain hotels.
As for staying at the luxury property, it’s not for the budget conscious travelers. This was our major splurge during our month in Spain. I’ve been reading and seeing pictures of this place for years and it happen to have availability during the time we were in Rioja. I snapped up the suite that had an adjoining room so the family could all be together in one space. It was not cheap. And to be clear, I did not get any discounts. I didn’t even try. I wanted to go into the stay and have a true experience not masked by doing what I do. I can honestly tell you it was beyond amazing.
The Marqués de Riscal Gastronomic Restaurant had one of the best wine pairing dinners I’ve had, especially during our month in Spain. Not only was the service exquisite and the food divine but the experience was one for the memory.
I want to point out that this is not a family friendly hotel. Granted there were kids on property, mine included. However, mine are now teenagers who enjoy a nice private room, Wi-Fi, and a large screen TV. Give them those things and they are happy. When I say it’s not family friendly, I mean there is not an outdoor pool for kids to play, there are not kids menus at the restaurants and they do not cater to little kids. And that’s great. Totally fine. For me, my kids are old enough that they enjoyed having their own private room overlooking the vineyards TV, Wi-Fi, and good food. They were also able to go to the pool on their own, I did have to sign a waiver since my oldest was only 16 and my youngest was 14 at the time.
The Marqués de Riscal hotel is not supposed to be a place where you take younger kids and stay for a week. Everyone will be miserable if you try.
The Spa at Marqués de Riscal
Spa Vinothérapie® Caudalie Marqués de Riscal is a unique spa concept that I had to try for myself after one of our contributing writers shared a piece on vino therapy spas. The concept of vino therapy focuses on natural treatments which contain the extraordinary properties of grapevines and grapes. You can read more about it here.
That said the husband enjoyed a massage with all natural vino therapy products while I enjoyed a facial. I have to say it was probably the best facial I’ve ever had. And I definitely came home with some more Caudalie products. You can find them throughout Spain and France at many Farmacias.
Elaine Schoch is an award-winning travel writer, wine judge, American Wine Specialist and certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET II). At Carpe Travel she shares wine travel destination guides for ALL WINE LOVERS – from novices to experienced pros – to help them plan their wine adventures, arming them with insider tips, must-visit spots, and things to see and do beyond the vines.