May 17 – Ornellaia, the Tuscan wine estate is celebrating its 25 years of activity in style: it appointed as its “Vendemmia di Artista” the famous Michelangelo Pistoletto to work on a limited and numbered series of large-format bottles. Overall, Pistoletto will decorate 100 bottles Double Magnum (3 liters), 10 bottles Imperial (6 liters) and a single copy of Salmanazar (9 liters), 8 of which were allocated yesterday in a charity auction in London at a gala dinner at the Royal Opera House in London. The event collected € 282,695 that will go to charity at the Opera House Foundation. During the evening, Sotheby’s monitoried the sale of the only bottle of Salmanazar, 3 Imperials and 4 Double Magnum, made unique by the hands of Pistoletto. The spiral that wraps the Double Magnum, the three-dimensional Salmanazar, and the game that shapes and changes the Imperial bottles are made of a special reflective material that recalls the artist’s work since the ‘60s. In the 3 and 9 liters versions, the spiral generates a sense of infinity, expression of a more intimate and spiritual artist; the 6 liters labels, each composed of 10 pieces of reflective material, make each bottle unique. “Many artists have found inspiration in wine – said Pistoletto -. In fact the substance often guides the artist to imagination, fantasy and truth (even in Latin they used to say ‘In vino veritas’). The mirror, given by the reflexive material, tells the truth and stimulates the imagination. I decided to use it by tracing lines and sinuous curves that disarrange the traditional squaring of the Ornellaia label. This work, therefore, wants to be smooth, flexible and dynamic as the flow of thought.” Ornellaia also created an ad hoc silkscreen that will be the logo embossed in the glass of the 2010 vintage bottles. Furthermore, as early as last February, the winery auctioned 4 bottles with screen printing of the 25th Anniversary, including Balthazar (12 liters), created for the first time and only for this occasion. The entire proceeds, amounting to €42.000, were donated to the Royal Opera House in London. John Geddes, CEO of Ornellaia, points out that in the last four editions of “Vendemmia di Artista,” all proceedings were donated to charity institutions related to the world of art.
