ICONIC ORNELLAIA A SYNTHESIS OF WINE AND ART

| BY FRAN ENDICOTT MILLER

Ornellaia. The mere mention of the iconic Italian wine sends oenophile hearts aflutter. Since its first vintage in 1985, the collectible cuvée of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and petit verdot has garnered award-winning recognition the world over. The Bolgheri estate is consistently ranked as one of the world’s best by Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, James Suckling, Antonio Galloni, Bruce Sanderson, and the Italian Wine Guides Gambero Rosso, Espresso, and Veronelli.

Established in 1981 in a region along the Tuscan coast not traditionally known for grape cultivation, the Ornellaia estate was part of the original Super Tuscan revolution. In 2001, the 1998 Ornellaia was declared ‘Wine of the Year’ by Wine Spectator. In 2011 the German publication Der Feinschmecker awarded Ornellaia its most sought-after award, the ‘Weinlegende.’

Each distinct vintage contains varied percentages of each Bordeaux varietal. Yet, every vintage speaks of the Ornellaia terroir as a single, unified voice, and estate director Axel Heinz names each vintage in recognition of its character. For instance, 2018 was named La Grazia in tribute to the blend’s sense of proportion and symmetry. 2019 was dubbed Il Vigore for the vintage’s healthy growth of the vines, and 2020 has been titled La Proporzione (or ‘proportion’) for the vintage’s ideal transmission of the essence of each grape variety in creating a perfect, proportional relationship.

The 2020 vintage was marked by contrast. Cold and rain alternated with extended hot and dry periods. After an almost perfect summer, the defining moment came with the late September drop in temperatures, which produced a wine of finesse and aromatic richness. “Ornellaia 2020 is vibrant and well-structured,” said

Ornellaia winemaker Olga Fusari. “It arcs through the palate with dense yet elegant tannins, leading into a persistent finish and lingering freshness.”

Ornellaia is equally well known by wine collectors for its unique Vendemmia d’Artista program, in which the distinctive character of every vintage is celebrated artistically. Each year, starting with the release of Ornellaia 2006 in May 2009, a contemporary artist crafts a site-specific artwork and a set of limited-edition labels inspired by the vintage name. For 2020 American artist Joseph Kosuth was chosen to interpret La Proporzione. “This year,” said Heinz, “nature and man have combined to form a perfect relationship between vine and thought in the just proportions of elegance, power, and complexity.” Korsuth, one of conceptual art’s great practitioners and thinkers, was chosen to interpret this relationship. In- terrogating its conventional techniques and definitions, it was the language of art on which Kosuth focused, aiming to present the complexity of cultural codes in visual form. He interprets the character of La Proporzione with a series of intellectually powerful works centered around the word “wine.”

Kosuth’s interpretation is expressed in his label design, both for the 750 ml bottle and for larger formats, and culminates in the site-specific artwork designed for the estate itself. Some of the larger, individualized bottles will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s online auction, to be held from September 7th to 21st, 2023, before becoming valued additions to the cellars of the winning collectors.

One artistic label designed by Kosuth can be found in each case of six 750ml bottles of Ornellaia 2020, La Proporzione. This label is printed with a quotation, in English, from Roman Architect Vitruvius, while the labels on the 100 Double Magnums show an etymological tree of the word wine. The 10 Imperials, no two of which are the same, have the same etymological chart etched onto the glass. Each Imperial shows a different branch of this tree highlighted in white, with Vitruvius’ quotation translated into that language or into one of its modern descendants: Albanian, Serbo-Croat, Latin, Italian, Hindi, Hebrew, Modern Greek, Irish, German, and Armenian. On the unique Salmanazar, the highlighted branch and Vitruvius’ surrounding words are in English.

“I think that language is an important part of the experience of everything, and those experiences are formed in a way linguistically,” said Korsuth, who has experimented with language-based artworks since the 1960s. “The architecture of the experience through language was, of course, always in play, and I think that Vitruvius was a great source to understand a concept like proportion. Proportion is not only the balance of elements for the eye but is also a balance of all the elements that make it an entity of perfection of what it means for the world, thus also forming it as a conception.”

The Vendemmia d’Artista initiative supports cultural projects, and for the last five years, proceeds from the Sotheby’s Ornellaia auction have been donated exclusively to the Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum’s innovative “Mind’s Eye” program, which allows blind and low vision people to access art.