Greatest showman: Why wine and art are Italy’s perfect match
Italian winemakers are tapping into the power of art to attract new consumers, reports James Lawrence.
THE RELATIONSHIP between Italy’s viticultural and artistic traditions is ancient and profound. During the Renaissance, wine was represented not only as a still life subject, but also as a symbol of hospitality and earthly pleasures; 1,500 years prior, Roman artists depicted Bacchus rejoicing in a cup of divine vino da tavola.
“Every seminal moment in our history, documented by artists, has depicted kings and popes drinking wine on important occasions,” says Alessio Inama, sales director at Soave producer Azienda Agricola Inama, based in the Veneto.
“Wine has always been represented in both sacred and profane art.”
However, the association is far from being one-sided. Just as the vine has provided inspiration for countless Italian artists, so too have winemakers sought to capitalise on this evocative vehicle for communication.
In the 19th century, Piedmont’s Contratto and Tuscany’s Barone Riscasoli began to commission artists to create eye-catching advertising in the form of boards, promos and banners. By the height of the 20th century’s Modernism movement, the streets of Rome, Milan and Florence were full of lavish posters designed by leading illustrators: Leonetto Cappiello, Enrico Sacchetti and Gino Boccasile to name but a few.
The next logical step for wine brands was to hire established artists to adorn their bottles with imagery that would convey notions of tradition, exclusivity and prestige. Yet today’s partnerships extend far beyond the realm of label design.
Pasqua Wines, a historic producer of Amarone della Valpolicella, is a poster child for this evolving relationship between the worlds of viticulture and artistic expression. Since 2018, Pasqua has invested approximately €5.1m in artistic collaborations, arts programming and patronage – most of which, until now, has been anchored in Italy.
In March 2024, however, the company announced a new sponsorship at London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery, elevating its relationship with the arts to a global status. Previous Pasqua partnerships have included commissions and collaborations, such as the dream-like audio-visual experience Luna Somnium by fuse*, conceived for the Gazometro in Rome, and Superfluo by None during ArtVerona in 2023.
CEO Riccardo Pasqua says of the latest Saatchi collaboration, which will run from 26 May to 28 July: “Metamorphosis: Innovation in Eco Photography & Film will showcase four artists whose work highlights how experimentation, process innovation and relentlessly pushing boundaries can unlock eco-consciousness and impact.”
The four multi-media artists incorporated in the exhibition, Almudena Romero, Hannah Fletcher, Edd Carr and Scott Hunter, were selected for their unconventional approaches.
“For an Italian winery from a very traditional, conservative region like Veneto to do things like this is pretty rare,” said Pasqua.
“This international collaboration builds on Pasqua’s strong heritage of arts patronage, its commitment to making art accessible to the public and its unique belief that innovation is born from a profound, appreciative knowledge of history and tradition.”
According to Pasqua, the wine company believes that “creativity needs to be cultivated with love and care, just like the land. Pasqua has spent almost a century innovating the future of wine production – and we couldn’t be more delighted with this pairing.”
Art of wine: Pasqua’s Saatchi Gallery patronage is its latest sponsorship move
Meanwhile, Fiol Prosecco, based in Treviso, has teamed up with both emerging talent and renowned artists for this year ’s Art Biennale in Venice, which runs until November 2024.
“This year we will have several activities in coordination with Art Biennale in Venice,” reveals cofounder Giovanni Ciani Bassetti. “In the coming weeks we will unveil the details of a collaboration with an artist that will participate in the awards for the Fiol Master competition.”
The competition will see entrants tasked with creating an original sparkling cocktail, incorporating at least 60ml, 60g or 2oz of Fiol or Fiol Rosé Prosecco DOC.
In a similar vein, Chianti Classico producer Nittardi marked its 40th vintage anniversary by holding an international art competition: entrants were invited to design a label for the 2020 vintage.
“With this special vintage we didn’t want to look back, as many would do for a celebration, but wanted to look to the future and give younger artists the possibility to create a label and wrapping paper for us,” explains winemaker Léon Femfert. In a major coup for the business, more than 400 artists from all over the world participated. In addition, the winery organised a label exhibition in November 2022 at the Palazzo Coveri, one of Florence’s most prestigious smaller galleries.
“Wine is not art, as many people say,” says Femfert. “An artist has a white canvas in front of him and can be creative; as a winemaker we depend on the terroir, the soil, the weather and the tradition of our region. However, what wine and art have in common is the highly subjective element of quality and how to judge it. Whether we like a wine or not is mostly subjective as for art.”
According to Femfert, the impetus for wine producers to seek out artistic collaboration began in the 1800s, when vignerons in Alsace sought out local monks to paint their labels with suitably grandiose imagery – biblical or otherwise.
“These were actually real artist labels, as the monks were always adorning the labels with small paintings,” he says.
The tradition remains in rude health in the 21st century, despite the rising interest in broader sponsorship campaigns and multinational patronage. Indeed, as a tribute to Nittardi’s erstwhile owner, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni – better-known simply as Michelangelo – every year an international artist creates a label and paper wrapping for Casanuova di Nittardi Vigna Doghessa: a superpremium Chianti Classico popular with collectors worldwide. More recently, contemporary artists such as Rudolf Hausner, Yoko Ono, Dario Fo, Allen Jones, Joe Tilson and James Ivory have all left their ‘mark’ on Vigna Doghessa.
Neoclassical style
The past, it seems, offers a pervasive fascination for Italian wine producers.
“Inspired by Andrea Palladio, an architect that under the Republic of Venice gave birth to the neoclassical style, our labels bring back to life engravings of ancient books from the 15th and 16th centuries,” says Alessio Inama. Yet the company also works with famous Italian photographers, such as Giò Martorana, “to develop our communication through images, with a sense of luxury style”.
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Inama regards these mutually advantageous partnerships as a fundamental part of the brand’s marketing mix and compares the process of consumers drinking in these artworks to that of gazing at a fractal spiral (a logarithmic spiral based upon Fibonacci numbers).
He says: “Consumers who learn about Inama can ‘dig into our layers’ and get trapped. We aim to create a strong sense of brand identity, so that consumers can keep learning and discovering not just about wine, but a whole vision. This helps to foster a sense of belonging, which in turn creates long-term interest.”
Anselmo Guerrieri Gonzaga, owner of the San Leonardo wine estate in Trentino, is another passionate devotee of the arts, and something of an art historian.
“Legends like Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci frequently featured wine in their works, reflecting its role in daily life,” he explains. “Leonardo, interestingly, wasn’t just a painter; he was also quite a good wine producer when he lived in Milan.
As centuries rolled on, Guerrieri Gonzaga adds, wine continued to be a muse for artists.
“In the 18th and 19th centuries, it graced the tables of aristocratic feasts in the paintings of Pompeo Batoni and Francesco Hayez, symbolising status and sophistication.”
Today, a growing firmament of wineries, including San Leonardo, keep this tradition alive by merging art with oenology. Last year, Guerrieri Gonzaga and his wife, Ilaria Tronchetti Provera, unveiled their fledging project Arte a San Leonardo, timed to coincide with the launch of the 2018 vintage.
The stated aim of this initiative was to “forge a link between the winery’s image and the languages of contemporary art through the creation of a series of original art labels and limited-edition library of artists’ books”. Thus an artist is invited take up residence at Tenuta San Leonardo and to create a libro d’artista, 200 copies of which will be published, as well as a custom wine label that will adorn a limited production run of 999 bottles of the current vintage of San Leonardo.
“Our collaboration with artists at San Leonardo isn’t just about creating art; it’s about creating connections. Artists who stay and work on our estate bring new energy and perspectives, enriching their own creative processes with the unique atmosphere of our vineyards. This experience isn’t one-sided,” observes Guerrieri Gonzaga.
“Everyone at San Leonardo, from our winemakers to our field staff, gets involved and benefits from this interaction. It’s a real exchange – artists share their vision, and our team gains new insights and inspiration.”
Symbiotic relationship
This symbiotic relationship between vintner and artist appeals to boutique wineries and global icons alike.
Since 2006, Ornellaia has invited leading artists to interpret the vintage through a series of labels designed for limited-edition bottles, each individually numbered and signed by the artist. Moreover, their cachet is not simply cultural but also commercial: the collection featuring the work of Iranian artist and photographer Shirin Neshat fetched a hammer price of US$312,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in 2016.
“For the 16th edition of our charity project Vendemmia d’Artista, we have chosen an amazing Italian artist to interpret the character La Generosità, the word that describes the 2021 vintage for Ornellaia. The artist is Marinella Senatore and she designed a set of labels as unique artistic prints of original collages, a sculpture for the salmanazar and a sitespecific work represented by the original collages handcrafted by the artist,” says Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of the family-run Tuscan wine titan.
“The site-specific artwork enlivens the estate, while the support provided to a noble cause via the auction sale symbolises the teamwork necessary to produce a great wine. It is a discussion that makes both sides richer.”
Playing to the audience
Frescobaldi’s rhetoric concerning the high-minded and even altruistic nature of these exchanges may seem admirable; however, there are obvious significant marketing advantages. Artistic collaborations, particularly the personalisation of wine labels, drive sales; collectors will pay lavish sums for anything that carries the tagline “limited edition” or “unique collection”.
More broadly, it can also stimulate and captivate a potential new customer ’s attention, heightening their anticipation of experiencing something inimitable and rarefied.
“Above all, it helps us shine a different light on the work we do at Ornellaia,” explains Frescobaldi. “If this can be of interest to wine and art lovers who had not been in contact with Ornellaia before, then it is mutually beneficial.”
Riccardo Pasqua takes it one step further, arguing that wine shares a universal language with art, “capable of breaking down all kinds of barriers” and, moreover, creating experiences that will chime with a younger demographic highly sought after by wine producers in today’s increasingly challenging market.
“Research we have commissioned in recent years has indicated that the new generations are looking for creativity and authenticity in brands. This is why, given the constantly changing context of trends and drinking habits, Pasqua Wines has sought art as the key to its communication,” says Pasqua.
“For the brand, creative collaborations with artists offer opportunities to tell an authentic story through new and engaging mediums, differentiating themselves in the marketplace and strengthening brand identity. By aligning with artists known for their ground-breaking work, brands can also reflect their own position as pioneers of creativity, and cultural relevance.”
And yet this cuts no ice with Guerrieri Gonzaga, who insists that self-promotion is not the main objective of any creative collaboration, regardless of the industry involved. “This is not just about enhancing our brand or the artist’s portfolio – it’s about enriching our community and personal experiences,” he says. “Personally, I’ve always loved artist labels; they are like a signature that captures the essence of our collaborative spirit within a specific moment in time.”
Meanwhile, it’s no secret that the fine wine market has stagnated of late.
Liv-ex’s annual fine wine market review, published in December 2023, revealed that major indices had dropped to levels they were at two years ago. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100, for example, was down 13.2% year-to-date, while the Fine Wine 50 (which tracks the movements of first growths) and Fine Wine 1000 (the broadest measure of the market) had fallen by 13.6% and 13% respectively over the same period.
But, despite the challenging macroeconomic context, the rarity and exclusivity offered by artistic collaborations can be a powerful commercial aphrodisiac, while simultaneously delivering a wider social benefit. La bella figura indeed.
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