Art Meets Wine

From celebrated exhibitions and acquisitions, including its recent Adelaide Fashion Festival partnership with Australian designer Paulo Sebastian; to its upcoming Colours of Impressionism exhibition featuring masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.

Yalumba has been a proud partner and sponsor of the Art Gallery of South Australia for 17 years, which got us thinking about the relationship between creating and experiencing fine art; and making and enjoying fine wine.

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While savouring Yalumba’s rare and fine wines at a recent exhibition launch, we asked four of our finest fellows of art and wine their thoughts about the relationship between the two creative pursuits. Here’s what they had to say.

Nick Mitzevich
Director, The Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia’s visionary Director himself, Nick Mitzevich, said that both art and wine celebrate creativity, just through different formats.

“What’s so beautiful about the relationship between art and wine is that it’s all about creativity,” he said.

“Artists use their hands and their minds to put ideas together, vignerons create extraordinary things that tantalise our tastebuds.

“It's about creativity, it’s about delight. Art and wine are a beautiful match.”

Nick Waterman
Managing Director, Yalumba

Nick Waterman, Yalumba’s Managing Director, said that while art and wine are both heavily critiqued forms of expression, the beauty in both is that they are entirety subjective.

“Many people say wine is art. They’re both crafts and they both reflect individuals input,” he said.

“They’re both subjective though. Nobody gets to determine, really, what is good and what is great. It’s an individual’s choice.”

Nick Ryan
Australian Wine Writer

National wine writer, Nick Ryan, known for his wit, charm and love of Australian wine, said that art and wine are one and the same.

“I think the relationship between art and wine is indivisible, I think they are the same thing. Just formed and expressed in different ways,” he said.

“But truly great wine, the wines that keep you up at night, the wines that haunt your dreams are artful wines.”

Robert Hill-Smith
Chairman and Proprietor, Yalumba

Proprietor of Yalumba, long-time sponsor of the Art Gallery of South Australia, and supporter of the national art community, Robert Hill-Smith knows a thing or two about wine and art.

“If you think about making wine and creating art, there is a real synchronicity,” he said.

“It’s got so many different interpretations, but it’s entertaining, it’s satisfying, and it appeals to so many audiences.”

But ultimately, Robert says you can’t have one without the other.

“As we say, it takes a lot of wine to make good art.”

For more information about the upcoming Colours of Impressionism exhibition featuring masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, visit the Art Gallery of South Australia.