El Bulli to auction cellar at Sotheby’s

Gastronomes around the world wept in 2010 on hearing the news that Spanish pleasure dome El Bulli – voted the world’s best restaurant four years in a row – was to close its doors for good in 2011. Now comes the news via Wine-Searcher that the restaurant is to sell off its 10,000-bottle wine cellar at a Sotheby’s auction, though the auction house is remaining tight-lipped about details of the auction until further notice.

The three Michelin-starred restaurant near the town of roses, 160km north of Barcelona, closed its doors last July, having operated at a loss since 2000. It is set to re-open in 2014 as a culinary think tank, where former head chef Ferran Adrià, 50, will investigate and develop new cooking techniques.

The 139-page, 1,600-bin list features wines from classic regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy and Piedmont, alongside cult Californian wines, rare Sherries and Spanish icon wines such as L’Ermita, Pingus, and Vega Sicilia Unico. Compiled by Adrià's business partner Juli Soler, wines ranged in price from €21.40 to €5,350 for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti 1999. Pétrus 2000 was also on the list for €3,745 a bottle. 

Voted the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine a record five times, El Bulli pushed the boundaries of contemporary cuisine for more than two decades with its off-the-wall dishes created using molecular gastronomy. Though its popularity came at a cost. With staff fielding more than two million reservation requests a year, the public pressures of running a restaurant influenced Adrià’s decision to close.

“When people bring up the issue of reservations, I have to give some kind of explanation. We created a monster and it was time to find a way to tame it,” he said on announcing the restaurant’s closure. The El Bulli Foundation will grant 20-25 scholarships annually for chefs to spend a year working with Adrià on new creations, the results of which results will be posted online.

Ornellaia picks Chinese artist for 2009 art series

Super Tuscan Tentuta dell’Ornellaia has chosen Chinese artist Zhang Huan for its limited edition Vendemmia d’Artista 2009 series. As reported on thedrinksbusiness.com, interpreting the theme of equilibrium, reflecting the character of the 2009 vintage, Huan has created a series of works around the figure of 6th century B.C. Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Entitled “Questioning Confucius,” Huan’s works include a steel sculpture of the Chinese thinker, which has been placed in the winery’s courtyard. He has also created a limited series of large format bottles, including 100 double magnums (3L) featuring a Confucius image and quotation on the pursuit of wisdom, and 10 Imperials (6L) of the philosopher during different stages of his life.

The jewel in the crown is a single Salmanazar (9L) with an oval steel sculpture engraved with the philosopher’s portrait (pictured). "Confucius thinks people should find their own position and move forward instead of disturbing the natural order of things. It is wrong to overdo it,” said Huan. “The theory of harmony between man and nature tells us to respect nature and the universe so as to establish a world of equilibrium where we can live together peacefully,” he added.

The Vendemmia d’Artista series was launched by Ornellaia in 2009 with the goal of recovering the tradition cultural patronage popular during the Renaissance. On 27 April, the winery will host a Sotheby's charity auction at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong, where 21 of the 111 limited edition bottles, including the Salmanazar, will be auctioned off. The net proceeds of the event will be donated to the H2 Foundation for Arts and Education.

"Every year we commission a great artist to produce a work that captures the essence of the wine, the nature of the vintage, and its personality,” said Ornellaia’s chief executive Giovanni Geddes. “In four editions of Ornellaia Vendemmia D'Artista we have raised over €600.000. A drop in the ocean, but we are proud to have been able to contribute,” he added. Based in Shanghai and New York, in addition to sculpture, Huan works as a performance artist and photographer.

This is not the first time a Chinese artist has been chosen to create a wine label for a high profile property. In 2010, Château Mouton Rothschild asked Beijing-based artist Xu Lei to design its 2008 label – a blue-hued ink drawing of the Château’s signature ram standing on a rock. The number eight is considered particularly lucky in China, as the Chinese word for eight (ba) is similar to the word for prosperity (fa).