Damien Hirst has given two Dom Pérignon champagnes his signature kaleidoscope makeover, and the results are as much collector's objects as they are bottles of fizz. The collaboration covers two vintages: the Rosé Vintage 2010, dressed in pinks and purples at $475, and the Vintage 2018 in deeper blues and violets for $305. Both feature the butterfly motif that has defined Hirst's Kaleidoscope Paintings, and both twist the maison's famous shield into a repeating pattern rather than leaving it sitting untouched on the label.
Hirst, who has mounted more than 90 solo exhibitions but still insists art should be used rather than admired — he's openly annoyed when people hang his surfboards on walls instead of riding them — saw a natural fit with the champagne house. He traced the butterfly wing shapes back to Victorian tea trays and drew a parallel between his own method and the way champagne is made: a Dom Pérignon vintage is an assemblage of grapes, much as his kaleidoscopes are assemblages of found objects and wings.
The two cuvées were chosen deliberately, according to Dom Pérignon managing director Jacques Giraco. The 2018 is defined by depth, minerality, fruit and salinity, while the 2010 rosé gets its intensity and density from Pinot Noir. Hirst's motif unifies them; the colour separates them. The artist also played with the house's shield, multiplying and repeating one of champagne's most recognisable symbols until it became part of his own visual language.
Hirst joins a heavyweight roster of past Dom Pérignon collaborators — Warhol, David Lynch, Jeff Koons, Basquiat and Murakami have all left their mark on the brand. Giraco says the house only works with artists whose vision has genuine common ground with Dom Pérignon, then hands over the shield as a canvas and lets them run with it. For Hirst, the appeal of the format is that it takes art beyond the gallery and makes it, in his words, more democratic — a bottle on a dinner table can transmit a piece of culture just as effectively as a work on a white wall.
Why should a traveller care? If you're visiting Champagne, a tasting at a house in Épernay or Reims is already a highlight; timed limited editions like this give collectors and gift-buyers a reason to seek out specific vintages while they're there. And even if the $475 price tag is steep, these bottles tend to appreciate with collectors, so picking one up — or simply seeing the packaging in a top wine shop in Paris or London — is a small piece of art history you can actually drink. For fans of Hirst, it's also one of the more accessible entries into his work, given that his major canvases trade for millions.
