Creative Spirit
How does a winemaker distinguish its limited‑edition bottles and vintages? By sprucing up its bottles. We explore the relationship between art and wine
How does a winemaker distinguish its limited‑ edition releases?
To many oenophiles, a great bottle of wine is akin to a work of art—but this association goes beyond the precious liquid housed within. While the bottle designs and labels are thoughtfully designed by in-house artists to enhance the experience, some winemakers have been going the extra mile to collaborate with artists from different fields to reimagine the look of their offerings, which can include the popular releases or limited-edition ones.
Matthew Lamb, the resident sommelier of online bottle shop Clink Clink, believes that this current trend is due to the “marketing potential and expansion into new markets” that leverage on the respective brands’ strengths. Take, for example,
Moët & Chandon, which has redesigned its Moët Impérial & Nectar Impérial Rosé champagne bottles for the first time in the range’s 152-year history, with the help Yoon Ahn. She is the co-founder and creative director of fashion label Ambush, which has found favour with the likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna. Without veering too far away from the
iconic look, Ahn updated the gold neck of the bottle to a deep shade of black, in contrast to the new embossed label in white.
This year also saw the release of collaborative bottles by other maisons. Veuve Clicquot celebrated its La Dame Grande Dame 2012 by tapping on the artistic talents of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, while Dom Pérignon and Italian jewellery house Bulgari worked together to design the limited-edition Pérignon Rosé 2004 bottle, draped with a bespoke Serpenti necklace and engraved with its signature scale pattern.
While one-off collaborations seem to be the current trend at present, 1855 The Bottle Shop managing director Lim Jing Zhe points out that it has been slowly gaining traction over the past few years. In fact, legendary winemakers Château Mouton Rothschild and super Tuscan icon Ornellaia have helmed label art collaborations since 1945 and 2009, respectively. The former’s recent partnership is worth noting as it was with Chinese artist and writer Xu Bing, who is known for his square word calligraphy. He updated the label with characters that may look Chinese but are actually letters of the Latin alphabet. Champagne house Louis Roederer also has an ongoing collaboration with French designer Philippe Starck, who designed its Brut Nature vintages namely the 2006, 2009 and 2012.
“These are done to tell the story of each vintage,” Lim adds, and they become coveted pieces that wine lovers look forward to collecting every year. Moreover, these bottles spark the interest of everyday customers with their eye-catching designs, and Lim affirms that these generate slightly more sales than their regular offerings.