Elite Traveler Summer 2023

THE FRESCOBALDI FAMILY AND ORNELLAIA Last fall, the Frescobaldi family, winemakers in Italy for 700 years, hosted a gathering at New York’s Guggenheim Museum to display the latest limited edition art bottles of its Ornellaia, one of the greatest Super Tuscan wines. Founded in 1981, the winery passed from Ludovico Antinori to a partnership of Robert Mondavi and the Frescobaldi family, and is now totally owned by the latter. But from the fi rst, Ornellaia — and its sister wine, Masseto — helped establish the prestige of the Bolgheri area in Tuscany and global recognition for Italian wines as collectible luxuries. To underline the unique character of each vintage of Ornellaia, the family turns to art, making the rich, plush red a part of global culture. In 2009, they initiated their Vendemmia d’Artista project, selecting an internationally renowned contemporary artist to create a work of art to represent the essence of the vintage, and auctioning them o ff tobene fi t thearts. frescobaldi.com

This image Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista project sees a renowned artist create a work of art to celebrate the vintage Below, inset Ornellaia’s vineyards in Bellaria

HARLAN ESTATE When Bill Harlan founded his eponymous wine estate in 1984, he started with a “200-year plan” to create a Napa Valley cabernet from hillside grapes that would have as much prestige as Bordeaux’s fi rst growth châteaux. He wanted, he says, “to give people a glimpse of the sublime.“ He was willing to do whatever it took to accomplish this, including waiting 12 years to release his fi rstwine. Harlan was one of Napa’s original ‘cult’ wines, an elite cadre of hard-to-obtain reds made in tiny quantities and eagerly sought by collectors. The status of the label’s powerful, sumptuous, age-worthy reds rests on quality and price — currently about $1,000 a bottle on release — but also on scarcity and exclusivity. Harlan Estate’s 2,000 cases a year are sold only to customers on a mailing list. The aesthetics of everything at Harlan, from its winery design to the bottles’ artistic packaging, symbolize history and luxury. The elegant, 19th-century style label, for example, features an engraving from a 250-year-old American bank note company. And the legacy is assured, with Harlan’s son Will and daughter Amanda now in charge. But Bill Harlan’s in fl uence is wider than his own estates. His lavish Meadowood Resort and private Napa Valley Reserve wine club have helped Napa itself become an exclusive brand. thenapavalleyreserve.com

Above Harlan Estate This image Bill Harlan

Harlan Estate 2018