Ornellaia sells for record $45,000

A Salmanazar of Tenuta dell’Ornellaia 2007 has raised $45,000 for the Whitney Museum of American Art in an auction held by Sotheby’s New York.

The auction – the second edition of the Vendemmia D’Artista ‘L’Armonia’ organised by the Bolgheri estate – raised a total of $167,000, with the proceeds going to the restoration and preservation of American works of modern art.

The auction comprised several large-format bottles autographed by the artists Ghada Amer and Reza Farkondeh.

It was part of a long-term project launched by the wine estate to recreate the Renaissance patronage of the arts.

The 9-litre (or 12 bottle) Salmanazar, with a hand-painted cloth label, sold for $45,000, or the equivalent of $3,750 per bottle – 20 times the wine’s average price on the market.

In total, 23 large size bottles of 2007 Ornellaia were sold: One Salmanazar, four Imperials, and 18 Double Magnums.

They were part of 127 bottles with special labels created for the inaugral 2009 auction, and relate to an art installation at the winery itself.

The four Imperials were sold for $47,000, while the entire Copper series (18 bottles) of the Double Magnums, sold for $75,000.

‘We have a permanent art curator at Ornellaia, and together we choose artists whose work share characteristics with the year’s vintage,’ Andrea Orsini at Ornellaia told decanter.com.

‘Next year we will arrange the project Vendemmia d’Artista in Germany, but the details are not yet finalised.’

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Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux