elBulli to Auction Off Its Wine Cellar via Sotheby's

Chef Ferran Adrià's restaurant elBulli, which closed last July, is going to auction off the entirety of its wine cellar (the 139-page wine list is embedded below). According to Wine Searcher, the auction house Sotheby's will be in charge of the sale, which could include as many as 1,600 different wines from a cellar now estimated to include upwards of 10,000 bottles.

The list is one of the more eclectic to be attached to a Michelin three-starred restaurant; it's the result of having to pair wine with Adrià's complex, extended menus. The world's greatest hits — i.e. top-flight Burgundy, Bordeaux, as well as cult Spain and California — played a prominent role. But there were plenty back-vintage regional wines from Italy (older wines made from grapes like barbera and aglianico, for instance) and France (including at least a dozen 15+ year-old wines from the Languedoc and Roussillon) that could make for unlikely and surprising auction lots on the lower end.

Despite the list's variety, the restaurant's co-owner and unofficial wine director Juli Soler ensured that the wines of Spain still formed its centerpiece, with everything from multiple vintages of L'Ermita and Vega Sicilia's Unico, to back-vintage albariño and a rare list of Sherries. The list topped out at 5,350 Euros for a bottle of 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée Conti. In its entirety, the collection's worth is likely in the high six figures or more.

No word yet on when the sale will take place or exactly how many wines will be on the auction block. Here's the 139-page wine list:

· Trailblazing El Bulli Sells Off Its Cellar [Wine Searcher]
· All elBulli Coverage on Eater [-E-]