. . . and now for the Vin Olympics

On the occasion of the 2016 Olympic Games we present Ronald Searle's 'Vin Olympics' created in 1984 for John Goelet's  Clos Du Val and Taltarni wineries.

Original courtesy of Peter DeSeve

On the reverse of one of the original drawings is this scratched out version of the above. Searle was quite prepared to discard a finished drawing if it the composition didn't work for him.

Searle Down Under

Over the course of his career Searle did several assignments on an antipodean theme, not the least of which were the 'wine' drawings for the Australian arm of wine-maker John Goelet's vinery business Taltarni and Moonambel.

For Sports Illustrated (Nov 1st, 1971) he illustrated  John Underwood's article 'Poms, Butcher-Birds and Bogeymen' . The original article is archived here

'Australian Race Crowd' Sports Illustrated 1966

More Winespeak

In the early 80s Searle was commissioned by wine-maker John Goelet to publicise his Clos du Val winery in the Napa Valley, California and his Taltarni vineyard in Moonambel, Australia.

The drawings were later published in the collections titled 'The Illustrated Winespeak' and 'Something In the Cellar'

Republished in 1987 as 'Ozzie Winespeak' to promote Taltarni and the Americas Cup.

Ivor Wood animates Searle's Winespeak drawings for the Clos du Val winery. In the video online here you'll see Searle's Bacchus & his kangaroo steed animated in stop-motion!  The drawn animation is some of the best examples of Searle's style animated in 2-D.

See more on Wood and Searle's animation here

Searle on wine - one of his favourite subjects!

Searle also designed their wine bottle labels

 'Petit verdot'