Fine wine, fine art, and celebrity characters – a combination set to sell thanks to the inspiration of a company making the most of Tasmanian talent.
Artist Pieter Zaadstra, owner of the White Church Gallery in Glengarry, has joined with national company CelebriWines to produce fine art labels with portraits of celebrities for reserve-level wines.
His first label, portraying ‘Con the Fruiterer’ are now being showcased on two Tasmanian wines from Nocton Vineyards.
The labels are the first Tasmanian partnership from CelebriWines, which now offers the collector’s-edition wines from vineyards across the country, including Margaret River and Geelong.
Earlier editions of the wines on sale feature art from renown Australian artists, with Zaadstra’s next commission for the labels a series of portraits of Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.
“It’s an idea to celebrate interesting ideas, interesting people and interesting wine,” Zaadstra said.
“Toss in a charity of choice and mix it all up and stir to produce a label, or many labels.”
He said as the partnerships develop it’s planned that the White Church Gallery will be the hub of the Tasmanian wine-and-art combination, bringing celebrities to Glengarry to have their portraits painted for the labels.
Anthony Woollams from Nocton Wines said CelebriWines came up with the concept of matching celebrity with wine and artist as a method of extending their wine-selling business in an attractive and interesting way.
“It’s also about extremely serious wine – these aren’t gimmicky wines, they are intended to be collectible,” he said.
“From a wine perspective they are a reserve-level wines, a 2015 reserve Chardonnay and a 2013 reserve Pinot.”
Good wine and fine art – what more could you need?
It’s an opportunity for Zaadstra to paint “weird, wonderful and crazy” characters in a lively setting that will wind up on bottles of wine worth $45-50, with 200 bottles of each label signed by the celebrity portrayed.
Just a few months ago Zaadstra had listed the church gallery for sale, but said he decided not to sell – and it’s just as well.
He said there are about 20 labels in concept at the moment as the partnership develops, keeping him busy in the months ahead with plenty of iconic Australian characters to illustrate.
“I’m having an awful lot of fun doing it, and the little church is the centre of it,” Zaadstra said.
- This story first appeared on The Examiner.