LIGHT BODY, CLEAN FLAVOURS
Dom Pérignon: Piet Mondrian
Despite being the luxury champagne par excellence, Dom Pérignon gives the sense of having been pared back to its essentials. Just as a true Mondrian shames its many imitators, Dom is set apart by the way it always yields something unexpected: a sparkle of iodine or a whiff of spark plug, like a skinny sliver of yellow jammed into one corner. As in Mondrian’s compositions, a thoroughly modern surface conceals a deep understanding of classical proportions.
Ruinart: Constantin Brancusi
Ruinart wines are heavily built on chardonnay, some of them 100 per cent, and strike the palate like beams of pure light, their taut, soaring energy beautifully epitomised by Brancusi’s bronze Bird in Space sculptures. Like those spaceage plumes, the wines leave the impression that they will outlive us all.
Perrier-jouët: Georgia O’keeffe
The swooning art nouveau anemones gracing Perrierjouët’s Belle Epoque lead virtually everyone to pick up white flowers in their wines, so perhaps picking O’keeffe is a bit on the nose. However, these wines share the focus and formal discipline of the New Mexico painter’s close-ups of white roses, calla lilies and irises. A fine balance of fanciful and pure, the wines, like the paintings, are quietly luminous.
Cristal: Sandro Botticelli
Cristal, the superlative cuvée born in 1876 of Tsar Alexander II’S paranoia—it is rumoured he requested a clear bottle so he could detect poisons—boasts the peerless longevity that eluded the royal himself. There’s an austerity at its core, the product of chalky soils or retained malic acid, that is tempered by an elaborate exterior of abundant lees and creaminess. Likewise, the floral crowns and brocades of Botticelli’s figures contrast with their serene, contemplative expressions and a detached, linear style that, at more than 500 years old, feels similarly timeless.
Agrapart et Fils: Alberto Giacometti
The coveted wines of Côte des Blancs superstar grower Pascal Agrapart are almost exclusively angular, lithe and racy, much like the slender, craggy figures of mid-20th-century Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Intensely hand-wrought in feel, the wines exhibit a dynamic immediacy shared by Giacometti’s confidently striding forms.