The art outside the bottle

Small pieces with big names

It’s obvious that we focus on what’s in the bottle, but what’s on it can say a lot about our taste in art, which everybody has of course, to one level or another. Because we are visually oriented, the whole look of the product affects our choice, especially if we have never tried the beverage before. So it’s no wonder that winemakers take their labels very seriously. They put a lot of effort into these little pieces of art to attract the attention of wine lovers. This isn’t, however, the invention of modern marketing.

Almost a hundred years ago, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, an extravagant Jazz Age aristocrat and playboy who didn’t only think about car races, beauties and clubs, became the trendsetter of wine promotion. The owner of Château Mouton-Rothschild decided to move his “deprived” (excluded from Grand Cru status) wine to an up-to-date label, something totally different from any wine labels before. In 1924, Rothschild asked a young artist, Jean Carlu, to realise his vision. One-handed Jean Carlu (he’d lost his right arm in an accident) created a pioneering label, which is one of the signature brand labels even now.

For historical reasons, only in 1945 did Baron Philippe finally established the tradition to commission well-known artists for making the brand’s labels. Since then, the labels for Château Mouton-Rothschild have been created by Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, Chagall, Dali, Balthus, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Tàpies, Andy Warhol and in 2004 even by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. In Château Mouton-Rothschild there is even a Labels Room, which contains the original prototypes of their labels since 1945.

For now, the choice of artwork is made by the younger son of Baroness Philippine (the only daughter of Baron Philippe de Rothschild), Julien de Beaumarchais. The collection is open to the public and has been welcomed in more than forty museums worldwide. According to Liv-ex – the global marketplace for professional buyers and sellers of fine wine – Mouton-Rothschild is one of the 10 best Bordeaux wines in the world.

Not just design counts when we’re talking about the labels; colour plays a part too! Traditional light hues, a clear meaning and friendly look are accepted by wine lovers much more than striking, dark labels. It’s also not solely wines that have great labels; cognacs are also proud of their small masterpieces. Henessy is continuously commissioning talented artists to create its limited edition bottles.

For me one of the most interesting projects was realised by New York street artist Futura, aka Leonard McGurr. Futura is a pioneer in his field. Since the 70s, from the age of 15, he has been creating street art. He is the author of two Hennessy labels, which symbolise an intensive motion of vivid flows, and this motion is really felt by the viewer. He also did two live shows painting on a wall of bottles – one at the Colette concept store and the other during the launch party at La Générale.

For the occasion Hennessy organized a “Street Art Tour”, a walk down Paris streets to find frescoes and graffiti works.

The cognac brand was also cooperating with street artist Shepard Fairey (the author of the Obama “Hope” poster). The limited edition, in that case, was three hundred and fifteen thousand bottles, which, according to media, were selling very well. Manhattan-based artist Ryan McGinness is another case; after the Hennessy project, Afterimage wrote about him: “A Warhol for the information age…”. Brazilian street artists Os Gemeos, in the fruit of cooperation, created a very optimistic and brightly-coloured label in the style of the artists.

It is a fact that the art work that appears on the bottle is an advertisement not just for the liquor, but in and of itself. In 2015, the original prototype of the label of biodynamic wine “Cælestis” by Peter Doig sold for 40,000 pounds. All proceeds went to World Wildlife Fund to fight the use of tiger bones in Asian “wine”. The Scottish-born artist had exhibitions in Dallas Museum of Art, Tate Britain and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, among others. In 2007, his piece White Canoe was sold for 11.3 million US dollars, which was a record for a living European artist. As Andy Warhol said: “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”