The eccentric wine guide by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, The Wines of Gala has been reprinted by Taschen for the first time since its first publication in 1978. This book follows-up Taschen’s reprinting of Les Diners de Gala, Dalí’s cooking guide dedicated to the pleasure of eating and cooking.
A real connaisseur does not drink wine but tastes its secrets.
This multisensory extravagant guide to wine “tasting and feeling” includes more than 140 illustrations by Dalí, ispired by the artist’s passion for the nectar of the gods. The revolutionary idea of the book is organizing wines “according to the sensations they create in our very depths.” The result was a series of amusing and surrealist paintings showing the place of wine in the Catalan painter's excentric universe (Click on the images to enlarge ).
No vin ordinaire, please
The book is divided into two parts. The first section is an overview of ten significant wine regions, Dix Vins du Divin (Ten Divine Wines), that includes descriptions of ten famous wines: the wine of Ay, Shiraz, the wine of King Minos, Lacrima Christi, the Great Red Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Sherry, Château d’Yquem, Romanée-Conti and California wines.
The second section of the book presents Dalí’s wine classification according to emotional experience. The artist organizes wines on how they influence his life and moods, giving passionate and imaginative descriptions of them. Starting from the sensations wines produce, he organizes them in ten categories: Wines of Joy, of Purple, of Aestheticism, of Dawn, of Sensuality, of Light, of Generosity, of Frivolity, of Veils, and of the Impossible.
The book include botanical information on the different wine grapes, gastronomic tips on wine and food pairings, practical advices on the art of serving and storing wine. All this from the unconventional and surrealist Dalí's point of view, ça va sans dire.
The Wines of Gala by Salvador Dalí is available on the Taschen website.
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