For 50 years the famed Spanish restaurant, elBulli, has collected over 8,000 bottles of legendary wines.
Now, on April 3th in Hong Kong and later on April 26th in New York City, Sotheby’s will be auctioning them all off in support of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli Foundation, a center to be opened soon by famous chef in Barcelona to study the creative process both in AND out of the kitchen.
Among the wines offered are three bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti 1990, estimated at $32,500 to $47,500. The largest selection of wines (more than 2,000 bottles) will be from Spain, featuring important vintages from Pingus, Clos Erasmus and Clos Mogador. Their estimated value ranges from $200,000 to $300,000.
Wine buyers can also look forward to 415 bottles of Rhone from Chateau de Beaucastel, more than 1,400 bottles of red Burgundy, more than 1,000 bottles of white wine and a large collection of all five first-growth Bordeaux vineyards.
But just in case multi-thousand dollars bottles of wine are not in your personal culinary budget, additional elBulli kitchen items will also be on the auction block.
Also available to the top bidder (starting at $1,000) is a white chef’s jacket signed by Ferran as well as a set of knives and signed siphon (both also starting at $1,000).
If these prices seem high, consider the cause that will benefit. The elBulli Foundation is a unique research center focused on creativity.
And as we all know, true creativity is both priceless and, sadly, rare. Bravo Ferran! May the discoveries you find at the Foundation inspire us all!
Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013
