Culture:

Wine, Art & a Château

Friday, 5 August 2016

While I was in Aix on my recent France trip we made a little excursion to Château La Coste in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, close to the town. The winery, restaurant and art complex is owned by Belfast-born Paddy McKinnen who had a colourful tussle for control of London’s Claridge’s, The Berkeley and The Connaught Hotels. Well colourful for some people, very profitable for the lawyers.

IMG_7739 - Tom Shannon – Drop, Château La Coste - 540▲The sculpture and outdoor art which dots the château grounds includes Tom Shannon’s Drop, with Frank Gehry’s 2008 Serpentine Pavilion in the background. I’ve encountered another ex-Serpentine Pavilion – Smiljan Radić’s 2014 example – recently and I’ll put up a blog on the current pavilion soon.

IMG_7750 - Mac Cóilín – Sunrise, Vietnamese tea house, Château La Coste - 540▲ Mac Cóilín spear-like Sunrise fronts a Vietnamese tea house

IMG_7744 - Tadao Ando – Four Cubes, Château La Coste - 540▲But my favourite was Japanese artist Tadao Ando’s ‘Four cubes to contemplate our environment.’ Inside a wooden building stand four square glass cubes titled Water, CO2, Rubbish and Future? Rubbish featured tightly compressed Japanese beer and soft drink cans.

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