Wine collectors
will already regard their cellars as a gallery of fine taste equal to any art
collection, however collectors may want to keep Dom
Pérignon’s 2003 Rosé
Vintage above ground. The prestigious champagne house has invited Jeff Koons to
produce a limited edition collaboration package that includes a scaled down
version of his 2008 sculpture Balloon Venus, inspired by the ancient
fertility statue Venus of Willendorf. The voluptuous vessel, exaggerated by Koons’s trademark inflatable aesthetic is anything but understated and
the same can be said for its price tag – at $20,000 this is Dom Pérignon’s most expensive collaboration to date, after David Lynch, Andy Warhol
(A Toast To Pop, July 2010),
Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Newson. The iconic bottle’s label and foiling mirrors that of
its presentation box in metallic majenta – a nod to its rosé
interior.
Balloon Venus, Dom Pérignon 2003 Rosé Vintage
This is not of
course Koons’s first foray into the cellar – in 2010 Baroness Philippine de
Rothschild continued the
annual tradition since 1945 at the winery of Baron Philippe de Rothschild
to commission an artist to design the label for its Château Mouton Rothschild
bottles. Koons joined Picasso, Dali, Freud, Bacon and Warhol in this exclusive
club with a reworking of the classical fresco image from Pompeii of yet another
Venus - the House of the Venus Marina III - superimposed with an infantile silver line
drawing of a sun and sailing boat. Château Mouton Rothschild 2010 remains one of the most expensive of the Moutons from the winery’s vintage from Pauillac over the
last decade and is sought after by wine and art connoisseurs alike.
This latest
luxury association with an art world grandee is somewhat of a first with
regards to its price bracket, inevitably posing the question: is Dom
Pérignon’s 2003 Rosé
Vintage the most expensive champagne in one’s cellar or is Balloon Venus the most accessible Jeff Koons one can collect? Whatever camp it lies, Dom Pérignon affirms the high-culture-formula to be much more than a trend in
recent years but an essential staple in a brand’s heritage and a profitable identity
strategy that justifies larger than life price tags, and in this instance, larger
than life lifestyles. For when money is no object, why not have one Balloon Venus in the cellar and the other on
display upstairs. Chin-chin to the best of both worlds.
To find out more about Koons’s luxury lifestyle
collaborations from this year read Fine Dining - a commission by French porcelain manufacturer Bernardaud to celebrate their
150th Anniversary with a collection of plates for L’Art de la
Table.
Visit Dom Pérignon for more details on this year's limited edition Balloon Venus release due in September.
Visit Dom Pérignon for more details on this year's limited edition Balloon Venus release due in September.