Six years and one major unforeseen challenge later, Bodegas Faustino has cut the ribbon on its new Foster+Partners-designed winery. On Thursday 26 September Spain’s Bodegas Faustino welcomed members of the trade and international press to the unveiling of its new “energy plus” winery in Logroño, Rioja Alavesa. Carmen Martínez Zabala, president of Familia Martínez Zabala – which owns Bodegas Faustino – said that the project “was not without risk” but added that “we are a family of brave individuals.” “We are green. We have always been green. And in the construction of this winery we have pushed the boundaries,” she affirmed. Familia Martínez Zabala enlisted Foster+Partners to design the new Faustino winery six years ago, during which time a number of unexpected challenges arose which caused the approach to the project to be re-evaluated. Speaking exclusively to the drinks business, Javier Pérez Torrejón said that the Russia-Ukraine war had “significantly increased the cost of materials”. He explained that the main structure of the solar-panelled winery is made from locally-sourced larch wood from the Basque Country but during the course of the project Russia went to war with Ukraine which had the knock-on effect of pushing up prices for all wood globally. “Russia and Ukraine are two of the biggest exporters of wood in the world so when they stopped exporting for a while it created scarcity, which in turn pushed up the price of all wood – even local – because suddenly there was greater demand and less supply to
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
