Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2015, “Il Carisma” raised 140.000 € for the Victoria & Albert Museum

When great wine meets patronage, the results are spectacular. The most recent case is the Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista 2015, “Carisma”, which was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London - nine lots including the special bottles created by the South African artist William Kentridge, and raised 140.000 euros to donate to the prestigious Victoria & Albert Museum in London, one of the world’s leading art museums.
The Ornellaia Harvest of the Artist project, commented the CEO of the Bolgheri brand, Giovanni Geddes da Filicaja, “has reached its 10th edition, and continues its donations for the restoration of international artistic heritage. We have succeeded in donating over 2 million euros worldwide - to the Whitney Museum in New York, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the H2 Foundation in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Royal Opera House in London, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York - just a small drop in the sea, so to speak, which we would like to continue growing”.
The project, in its 10th edition (and has involved excellent names such as Luigi Ontani, Ghada Amer, Rebecca Horn, Zhang Huan, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Rodney Graham, John Armleder, Yutaka Sone and Ernesto Neto) falls on the 30th anniversary of the first vintage of Ornellaia, 1985, and called on Kentridge, known for his drawings, films, sculptures, animations and performances where he transforms dramatic political events into powerful poetic allegories, to interpret the personality of Ornellaia 2015 “Charisma”. The artist has created a masterpiece for the estate, customized a limited series of 111 large-format bottles and designed an exclusive label that will be found in every 6-bottle 750 ml case of Ornellaia. The same label will also be replicated on all the Magnums and on the covers of their respective boxes, which is part of the project made for this extraordinary commemorative vintage. The designs of the labels have been taken from the pages of old Italian cash books, found in flea markets and second-hand shops in Tuscany.
“Just like people of great “Charisma”, the wines of the great vintages know how to impose themselves naturally, without using force, and their balance allows them to shine without needing to flaunt themselves”, explained Axel Heinz, oenologist and director of the Estate.
The artist has focused the images on the labels of Ornellaia mainly based on wine production and in particular on the grape harvest period. “The shears are a reminder of an experience I had during a harvest in Tuscany” said William Kentridge, “when I spent six months with my family in San Casciano, outside Florence. That period made me understand the human commitment behind wine production, even if what impressed me the most was the taste of lunch in the vineyards prepared by the farmer’s wife. It was a depth of flavors made from the combination of work and terroir. The aspects of wine production that combine both manual and mechanized processes called to mind the transformation of humans into machines and machines into workers. This study is part of a series of drawings and other works I am developing inspired by the work of man. The drawings were made from pages of old Italian cash books, found in flea markets and in second-hand shops in Tuscany”.
It is therefore thanks to his work that the Victoria & Albert Museum in London received a conspicuous donation. “We are thrilled to have hosted Ornellaia, Sotheby’s and the famous artist William Kentridge, in the tenth edition of Vendemmia d’Artista. We are honored that Ornellaia has chosen our museum for this spectacular event and we are extremely grateful for its generous support”, said the director of the museum, Tristram Hunt, at the gala evening where the auction took place.
This is the most recent stage of the project Ornellaia Vendemmia d’Artista (the art curators are Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, director of the Maxxi Museum in Rome, and Maria Alicata), created to celebrate the exclusive personality of each new vintage of Ornellaia, drawing inspiration from a word chosen by the winemaker to describe its essence.