Vendemmia d'Artista: Ornellaia 2006 establishes auction record

The bottle was purchased by auction by Giorgio Pinchiorri, the owner of the (Michelin-) starred restaurant "Enoteca Pinchiorri" in Florence. The restaurant's wine cellar is one of the largest in Europe and has national and international wines that cannot be found anywhere else.

"This is a very significant result that motivates us and proves that we are doing the right thing with the project Vendemmia d´Artista", says Giovanni Geddes, director of the Tenuta dell´Ornellaia, about the auction. "It is our goal to promote national and international art treasures with this combination of art and wine", explains Geddes. "This is a project that we initiated now that the maintenance and renovation of cultural artifacts is put on hold due to insufficient funds", he adds.

The Vendemmia d´Artista (artist harvest) is a timely attempt to remind of the meaning of artists' orders during the renaissance and strengthen the connection between art and wine in the form of well-known international artists as well as charity donations for museums. Thus, the red Ornellaia was already auctioned off last year for more than 150.000 euro, which was donated to art work.

The first topic of the Vendemmia d´Artista is tied to the 2006 Ornellaia vintage, outstanding by its exceptional "ebullience" (Esuberanza). The also very ebullient artist Luigi Ontani characterizes exactly this and thus designed and signed the labels for a limited edition of the 2006 Ornellaia (9, 6 and 3 liters). Some of these large unique bottles are supposed to go to worldwide auction houses like Christies in London and Sotheby's in New York.

Besides the labels, Ontani also designed four pillar-shaped well sculptures of ceramic, which represent the four seasons and now adorn the foyer of the wine cellar of the Tenuta. In the future, a new artist will be selected every year to create some art work for the foyer so that it will soon turn into a real art gallery. (aw.yoopress)