Zaha Hadid designs first wine bottle

Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid has designed a bespoke wine bottle for Austrian producer Leo Hillinger.

Austrian wine producer Leo Hillinger and Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid

The limited-edition design was created by the London-based architect for Hillinger’s Icon Hill 2009, of which just 999 bottles were made.

Known for her curvaceous structures, the bottle’s elongated form is inspired by the shape of a drop of wine and boasts, according to Hadid, “a light, tiptoeing footprint.”

“A continuous spatial curve was projected onto the bottle’s surface, defining areas for the concave indentation and suggesting the waves created when droplets break a liquid’s surface,” Hadid said on her website.

Leo Hillinger Icon Hill 2009

The concave indentation and the bottle’s surface have the same curvature, enabling a set of bottles to interlock.

A dimple in the base meanwhile, provides a thumb hold for pouring.

The shape of the bottle was created using NURB-based software, while the glassware was formed in cast-iron moulds.

Both the bottle and its packaging seem to take cues from the world of fragrance.

In 2004, Hillinger commissioned Austrian architects Gerner°Gerner Plus to design his winery in Jois just outside Vienna

In addition to his base in Jois, Hillinger owns single vineyards in Oggau and Rust.

Details of the Icon Hill 2009 blend have yet to be released, but Hillinger’s erstwhile top wine – Hill 1 2009, is a blend of Zweigelt, Syrah, Blaufrankisch and Merlot.

While this is Hadid’s first wine bottle design, it’s not her wine world debut ­– in 2006 she completed a five-year design project for a wine shop and tasting room for renowned Rioja producer López de Heredia.

Hadid designed the London Aquatics Centre used during the 2012 Olympics, and in the same year was made a Dame for her services to architecture.