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Executed between 1976 and 1977, the below thirty-five works—spanning collage, drawing and painting atop photographic prints—were created by Dalí for reproduction in his celebrated publication, Les Vins de Gala.

Executed between 1974 and 1977, the below thirty-five works—spanning collage, drawing and painting atop photographic prints—were created by Dalí for reproduction in his celebrated publication, Les Vins de Gala.

Les Vins de Gala (1977) is a lavish and surrealistic tribute to the transformative powers of wine, conceived as the hedonistic sequel to Salvador Dalí’s earlier gastronomic fantasia Les Dîners de Gala (1973). Published in October 1977 by the Parisian house Draeger as Les Vins de Gala du Divin, and later released in English by Abrams, the book reimagines the traditional wine guide as a dreamlike, emotional journey rather than a prosaic compilation of varietals. Les Vins de Gala celebrates intoxication as both alchemy and art—an ecstatic communion between the senses, the subconscious, and the divine.

Structured in two parts, the book reflects the duality of its creators: Dalí and Gala. Dalí organized in oenological categories such as the Wines of Shiraz, King Minos (referring to the ancient Cretan winery), the mystical Lacryma Christi from the volcanic slopes of Vesuvius, Rothschild’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Great Bordeaux Wines, Romanée-Conti, Château d’Yquem, and even the emerging Wines of California. Gala’s classifications, by contrast, are entirely unorthodox—grouped by feeling, time, and atmosphere. Her categories include Joy, People, Aestheticism, Dawn, Sensuality, Light, Generosity, Frivolity, Veils, and The Impossible—each addressing the emotional terrain of the hour before sunrise.

For the prose, Dalí sought the assistance of Louis Orizet, a Beaujolais viticulturist and politician, and wine luminary Georges Duboeuf, with an introductory acrostic poem by Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Orizet articulates the book’s mission statement: to reject traditional wine criticism by organizing wines not by origin or grape but “according to the sensations they create in our very depths.” The volume's over 140 illustrations—selected by Gala and drawn from Dalí’s repertoire of religious motifs, surrealist flourishes, and autobiographical fragments—underline the surreality of the text.

In 2017, Taschen reintroduced Les Vins de Gala to a contemporary zeitgeist with a facsimile edition, ensuring that Dalí’s ecstatic, bacchic vision of wine—equal parts myth, madness, and sensory revelation—continues to intoxicate new generations.

Les Vins de Gala (1976–77) is a striking collage-and-gouache composition created as the cover design for Dalí’s book of the same name. Dalí has here transformed a photographic print into a dreamlike vision, layering fragmented portraits of his wife and muse, Gala, within glistening, grapelike spheres. Central to the composition is a reproduction of Dalí’s Galarina (1944–45), an intimate painting that captures Gala’s enigmatic presence. Metallic, embossed letters spelling out "DALI" crown the composition. This work exemplifies Dalí’s ability to fuse personal iconography with opulent fantasy, turning even the act of drinking wine into a theatrical experience.

The Cat with the Wine-loving Whiskers
The cat is in the middle of the land of death
Formed by each of its whiskers.
Here flow mellifluously the wines of propeller-cats
These propellor and anti-propellor wines which make up
The aphrodisiac whirlwind of Aphrodite’s goose pimples.
It is the unique chill that the sybarite of wines
Feels in his spine
When he has gulped them down. Gulp. glug. Glug. Glug. Glug...
— Salvador Dalí, Les Vins de Gala, 1977

Le Chat aux moustaches vinicoles (pour Les Vins de Gala) was created for the publication of Dalí’s 1977 book Les Vins de Gala (The Wines of Gala), which, blending poetry and prose, offers an eccentric and surreal guide to the world of wine. The various collages decorating the book are amalgamations of popular Neoclassical paintings with mythological subjects, as well as of the artist’s earlier works, enhanced with gouache and photographic elements. In this work, Dalí unites his painting Phosphène de Laporte (circa 1932) and William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s Les Oréades (1902) with a photograph of a white Persian cat with heterochromia. The cat’s whiskers transform into fountains of wine, which cascade into the chalices of the nymphs and satyrs below. At the upper left, three humanoid heads and one catlike figure emerge from a yellow cloud.

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Salvador Dalí's Les Vins de Gala

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