I am strolling through the pretty town of Peñafiel in northern Spain and it’s as traditional as a Spanish town comes — a fairytale 15th-century castle surrounded by vineyards But just around a corner I am suddenly transported to the 21st century as I glimpse the “cathedral of wine”, a new winery designed by Richard Rogers. From the outside it looks as if five huge barrels have been sliced in half and plonked down next to each other at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands proud. Inside it is all shiny steel and state-of-the-art wine-making machinery.
The design is pure Rogers: slick, space-age and inspiring. You could almost be at T4, the wavy, domed terminal that he built at Madrid Barajas airport.
It’s certainly not what you would expect in this forgotten corner of Castilla y León, two hours’ drive northwest of Madrid. By inviting Lord Rogers of Riverside, one of an elite band of “starchitects”, to do his stuff in a town that is way off the tourist trail, the Spanish winemaker Protos has jumped on a bandwagon that started with Frank Gehry’s City of Wine in La Rioja.
Now, it seems, every self-respecting Spanish wine company has to have a designer bodega or it just doesn’t cut it. Get the likes of Rogers, Frank Gehry or Norman Foster to build a winery, the idea goes, and the tourists come flocking. And this theory appeared to stand up the day that I visited Rogers’s cathedral, which was inaugurated last month. Fans of the British architect, perhaps, rather than of Protos wines, had come all the way from Taiwan.
I started my tour not in Rogers’s creation but in the bowels of Peñafiel Castle, which is home to Protos’ original winery, opened in 1927. Surrounded by 4,000 barrels and enveloped by the musty odour, you get the idea that they have been making wine like this for hundreds of years. Step through a short tunnel to the cathedral, however, and you see how it is done now.
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Technical tour over, it’s time for the fun bit: la cata (tasting). In a pure white room we swilled, sniffed and tasted the Ribera del Duero wine. First up was a verdejo, a light white. I tried, in vain, to taste vanillas but failed miserably and settled instead for simply enjoying the subtle taste.
After some bread to clear the palate came Crianza 2007, a young red. My cata partner nosed out some strawberries, but I simply felt as if my taste buds had taken the day off. Finally we came to the Selección 2006, an older red that was a full-bodied pleasure.
To clear my head I strolled up to the castle and enjoyed the spectacular views from the parapets. There’s not much else to do in Peñafiel after this, apart from sampling the excellent food at Asados Mauro. Dishes typical of this hardy part of Spain, which subsists on farming, are lechazo asado — hunks of lamb cooked until they are crispy like pork crackling — and morcilla frita, a sweet version of black pudding. I washed it down with Reserva 2005, another red, which was a pure treat.
Not enough in Peñafiel to keep your interest? Then about an hour away is Valladolid, the regional capital, where Cervantes lived for a time, as did José Zorrilla, one of Spain’s most famous Romantic poets.
And political junkies may care to know that about an hour from Peñafiel is Olmedo, a drab town that has one claim to fame: it is where Miriam González Durántez grew up. That’s Mrs Nick Clegg, in case you have forgotten. A statue to her late father, José Antonio González Caviedes, who was mayor, stands in the town.
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Ms González left Olmedo long ago, but the Cleggs return now and again to see the family, if you fancy staying around for a sighting.
Need to know
Getting there Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies from London Stansted to Valladolid.
What to see A 90-minute tour of Bodegas Protos with tasting costs €10 per person (bodegasprotos.com) Where to stay Hotel Convento Las Claras has double rooms from €119 including breakfast (hotelconventolasclaras.com)
Designer wineries
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Frank Gehry designed Marqués de Riscal, a 43-room hotel, spa and restaurant complex, which opened in 2006 in Elciego, about an hour’s drive south of Bilbao. Its huge, wavy titanium panels, tinted in pink, are designed to reflect the rioja wine that is produced there. Silver panels represent the paper that covers the cork and the gold is for the mesh that covers all bottles of Marqués de Riscal wines. The company was keen to capitalise on the success of Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum down the road in Bilbao, and sealed the deal with Gehry over a bottle of 1929 rioja — the year of his birth. marquesderiscal.com
Santiago Calatrava, the Spanish architect known for the flamboyant City of Arts and Sciences, which transformed the city of Valencia, is the brains behind the design of Bodegas Ysios in the foothills of the Sierra de Cantabria , in northern Spain. Inaugurated in 2001, its ultra-modern design reflects the shape of a wine glass and a series of barrels. Named after the Egyptian goddess of magic who transformed grapes into wine, the bodega produces a reserva rioja. bodegasysios.com
Zaha Hadid designed a tasting room for the López de Heredia wine-making family in Haro, La Rioja. One of the oldest family-run wine-making companies in Spain, it prizes tradition. Inside the grounds of their winery there is a windmill and a cooperage where original tools are used to make wine barrels. Hadid, while better known for projects such as the Olympic aquatics centre in London, did not disappoint. She wrapped a carved wood kiosk, a sales booth from the 1910 World Trade Fair in Brussels, in gold-tinted steel. It is shaped like a decanterand includes benches made of wine-coloured Corian. www.lopezdeheredia.com
Opinions are divided over Sir Norman Foster’s bold design for the Bodegas Portia (below), near Gumiel de Izán in Burgos. The concrete structure of the winery is clad in steel, giving the impression of a villain’s bunker in a James Bond film. Grupo Faustino, the winemaker behind the project, is known for its fine Ribera del Duero wines. bodegasportia.com