From the July/August 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

In several historical belief systems, oracles were summoned through rituals involving alcohol. Recently, at the Donum Estate, a premium fine wine producer located in the wine region of Sonoma County, California, a new one has arrived. This one comes in the form of a 7.5-metre-high bronze sculpture, Oracle, by the American artist Sanford Biggers. The work, originally commissioned for Rockefeller Plaza in New York City by Art Production Fund, now joins one of the largest accessible private sculpture collections in the world, which sits alongside the state-of-the-art winemaking facility and organic farm.

Since the early 1800s, Sonoma’s winemaking tradition has been shaped by a series of visitors. Russian fur trappers, Spanish missionaries, central European aristocrats, Italian immigrants – even the intrepid Jack London acquired an estate there – have come to make wine. The Russian River area of Sonoma, in which the Donum Estate is partly located, became a protected AVA (American Viticultural Area) in 1983. Another globetrotting pair arrived in 2011: Allan and Mei Warburg, the celebrated Hong Kong-based contemporary art collectors. They purchased Donum and spread the collection into the landscape. According to Allan Warburg, ‘they say that if you play good music then flowers grow better; why shouldn’t this be the same with exposing vines to art?’

The Donum Collection contains artworks originating from 18 countries, six continents and countless studios. Some 60 works by artists including Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Keith Haring, Subodh Gupta, Tracey Emin and Olafur Eliasson, among others, share the terroir with the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blocks that are spread throughout the gentle hills. ‘Here you can see that even the sculptures are happy,’ Mei Warburg says. The artworks are the Warburgs’ donum – their ‘gift’ to the land.

The new gift, Biggers’s Oracle, continues a widespread tradition of placing sculptures in natural settings. ‘It’s an object that you would have to make a pilgrimage to – to consult it to get whatever answers or responses that you were looking for,’ Biggers says. The artist combines African and Greco-Roman tropes to highlight the ‘whitewashing’ of classical sculpture. Placing the work in a vineyard, as opposed to a city centre, is a way to ‘revere nature, and bring the ideas of the work to their fullest representation’.

View of Circle of Animals Zodiac Heads (2011) by Ai Weiwei on the Donum Estate

For Warburg, ‘when you go through a museum and you see a sculpture you just see it in this one environment. Whereas if you go to Donum […] I really think it makes a difference: the beautiful landscape setting, you listen to the wind, you hear the birds and you have a good glass of wine.’

Sonoma’s geography helps make it a successful viticultural region. It is bordered by the Sonoma Mountains to the west and the Mayacamas Mountains to the east, while ocean fog flows into the valley via the Petaluma Gap. The latter moderates the temperature and contributes to the acidity and complex characteristics of the grapes. The estate includes a variety of Pinot Noir clones and selections, a complex varietal to grow. Senior winemaker Dan Fishman believes that the wines ‘capture the energy’ of the land. This respect for nature means that Donum is one of the first wineries in Sonoma County to achieve Regenerative Organic Certified status for all its estate vineyards.

Warburg believes that the artworks enrich the experience of his vignerons as well as that of the guests. ‘I hoped that creating this would be inspiring for all the people working in Donum,’ he says. Chief executive Angelica de Vere Mabray believes that the artistic commissions ‘celebrate the broader gifts of the land, art and community’ by mirroring the art of winemaking. The artworks also signal Donum’s commitment to regenerative viticulture, since art cannot be rushed.

Donum is a living, breathing system shaped by the care and intention of artists, vintners, farmers and guests, all working to preserve a moment worth returning to – and sharing. In this setting, Biggers’s Oracle, with its interwoven histories and tactile materials, becomes a meditative, transformative experience. As Warburg puts it: ‘Art makes you think a lot, and wine makes you think a lot. I really think after a glass of wine artworks look better because of what they open up to the mind.’

From the July/August 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.