Wines from Ferran Adrià's El Bulli to be sold at auction
Wines from El Bulli, Ferran Adrià's famous restaurant in Spain which closed last year, are set to be sold off at two auctions next spring.
More than 8,800 bottles from the cellars of the former three-Michelin-starred restaurant on the Costa Brava will be auctioned off in Hong Kong and New York next April, with sales estimated to exceed $1m (£624,000).
El Bulli closed last year and will reopen in a completely different guise as the El Bulli Foundation, a centre of creativity and learning in 2014. Adrià described the wines, which will be sold in Hong Kong on 3 April and in New York on 26 April 2013 "as an exceptional and unique collection", adding that proceeds from the auctions would go towards funding for the El Bulli Foundation.
"We decided this very special and personal collection should be used to make a founding contribution to help ensure the successful launch of the El Bulli Foundation," he said.
El Bulli's wine cellar was created and managed by Adrià's business partner Juli Soler. According to Reuters, among the highlights of the wines on sale will be 2,000 bottles of Spanish wine, including six vintages of Vega Sicilia "Unico" from 1987 to 1996, 415 bottles of Chateau de Beaucastel, as well as full cases of bottles and magnums of Chateau Latour 2005 and three bottles of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Romanee Conti 1990, which have a pre-sale estimate up to $47,500 (£29,670).
Last month, Adrià revealed his vision for the El Bulli Foundation, which will be divided into different areas, offering a seven-month programme overseen by five long-standing El Bulli chefs acting as creative directors to about 18 to 20 chefs. "It will be like a campus. But it won't be a school, there won't be teachers or scholars, it will be a centre of a creativity where people share knowledge. We will have total freedom to do what we want," Adrià said.
The chef also released details of La Bullipedia, an online gastronomic database he is developing together with Telefonica that is to contain "every piece of culinary knowledge ever gathered, an online repository, reference point and forum".
Ferran Adrià unveils vision for El Bulli Foundation and new project La Bullipedia >>
By Kerstin Kühn
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