By Elin McCoy

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- With its curving roof of gleaming titanium, the futuristic, Frank Gehry-designed hotel that opened last month at Marques de Riscal winery in Rioja announces a new era for Spain's most famous wine region.

Alejandro Aznar, chairman of Herederos del Marques de Riscal, calls it ``the chateau for the 21st century, part of our new image plan.''

This once-sleepy region, which produces some 800 million bottles of mostly red wine, is in a state of flux.

You can see it in the wines: At one pole are the old-style, earthy-oaky red reservas and gran reservas, reliably smoothed to mellow elegance by longer years of aging before release than any other wines in the world. At the other are the new, intensely fruity, higher-alcohol wines that people call ``vinos di alta expresion'' (high expression wines), which began appearing a decade ago. Dozens of new, small bodegas are firmly in this modernist or international-style camp.

The initial reaction of the traditionalists was to cry heresy, claiming these avant-garde wines weren't really Rioja. Yet some of the old-style vintners are changing.

On a visit to the region last month, I discovered that even large producers like Marques de Riscal, which makes about 4.5 million bottles a year in Rioja, play it both ways. Nowhere is this more evident than at Riscal's $100 million ``City of Wine,'' the integration of the Gehry-designed hotel complex with Riscal's recently renovated 1858 stone winery, the oldest in the region.

Hotel, Restaurant, Spa

The 43-room ultra luxury hotel -- a small project by Gehry standards -- includes a restaurant with one Michelin star managed by Spanish chef Francis Paniego and a vinotherapy spa. To persuade Gehry to take on the job, the family invited him to spend a weekend in Rioja and pulled out a bottle of gran reserva from his birth year, 1929. That sealed the deal.

In the cellar, Riscal uses 21st-century winemaking technology but remains reluctant to give up the grand old style completely.

Until the mid-1980s, Rioja's classic reds were blends of several varieties -- raspberry-tart tempranillo with small amounts of mazuelo and graciano -- harvested from vineyards throughout the region's three zones. Now single-varietal wines and luxury cuvees from single vineyards are becoming common.

Star winemaker Jesus Madrazo of tiny Bodega Contino, an estate co-owned by giant CVNE, pioneered 100 percent graciano, once thought to be good only for blending. At a stone table overlooking vines turning red and gold, he and I shared the fruity, easy-to-drink 2001 Graciano ($105) and the delicious, violet-scented, single-vineyard 2001 Vina del Olivo ($125).

Producers used to age wines only in old American oak, classifying them by time in barrel and bottle -- crianza (the youngest), reserva and gran reserva, made only in exceptional vintages, aged for eight to 10 years or more, and released only when ready to drink.

Targeting U.S. Market

Now these producers are adding modern bottlings, often aimed for the U.S. market. In Riscal's historic cellar, alongside delicious traditional reserva and gran reserva, I tasted the dark, intense, smoky-mocha 2001 Baron de Chirel Reserva ($50), a cabernet-tempranillo blend, and the super-concentrated, velvety, all-tempranillo 2001 Frank Gehry Selection Reserva ($192 at the winery).

The first celeb wine named for an architect features a label designed and with an original sketch of the hotel by Gehry, who also sat on the tasting panel for the final blend. Marques de Riscal intends to produce and commercialize the wine in exceptional years.

Modern Classic

At family-owned Bodegas Muga, Jorge Muga uses old-fashioned technology to make his surprisingly fresh, balanced 1995 Prado Enea Gran Reserva ($35), aged for seven years before release. His New World-style Torre Muga, created just over a decade ago, is a modern classic ($50 for the dark, thick 2001). He recently introduced the even more concentrated Aro ($150 for the 2001), aged in new French oak.

``Tradition is not the only right way,'' Muga says, ``but behind the style should be a culture and personality.''

Not everyone is embracing the 21st century. My last stop is the ultra-traditional Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia SA, where wines rest in cellars for decades and wax is dripped on the top of the corks to seal the bottles. In the spooky, 200-foot-long cellar, 150 feet below ground, cobwebs swing so low that they brush your face.

Visiting `the Cemetery'

We taste wines in ``the cemetery,'' the underground vault where the very old vintages are kept. Of current releases, my favorite red is the 1981 Vina Bosconia ($75), now smoothed out to silky elegance.

Later, with dinner in Ezcaray at Restaurant Echaurren, holder of one Michelin star, we taste even older vintages: the raspberry-scented 1968 Vina Bosconia Gran Reserva ($245) and the complex, layered 1964 ($290), with its heady spice and mineral scents and flavors.

``There are a lot of great wines in Rioja now,'' managing director Maria Jose Lopez de Heredia concedes. ``But it would be a sad, lost world with only young, modern wines.''

For more information about Rioja wines, see http://www.marquesderiscal.com , http://www.lopezdeheredia.com , http://www.cvne.com and http://www.bodegasmuga.com ; for Restaurant Echaurren, see http://www.echaurren.com .

(Elin McCoy writes on wine and spirits for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Elin McCoy at emcwine@aol.com .