CRAFT / DIGITAL

CHAMPAGNE DOMAINE DE BICHERY

For Désir Noir, a 500-bottle cuvée, we set out to make the label an artwork in its own right – one painting, divided between every bottle.

Désir Noir is a Blanc de Noirs 2017 from Domaine de Bichery in Neuville-sur-Seine, in the Aube. Five hundred bottles, and a single question to start: could a label be a piece of art in itself, not just something applied to the front? We took the landscape of the domaine as the subject and worked from there.

A Painting in 500 Parts

We mounted all five hundred cotton-paper labels side by side into one large canvas, set up inside the winery itself. Across that surface we hand-painted the domaine's vignette – the vineyards seen from one of its parcels – as a single, continuous picture. For a while, the production space was a studio.

Then we cut the painting back into 500 labels, each holding one fragment of the whole, and applied them to the bottles by hand. The finished cuvée is one painting scattered across 500 bottles – the full image only really exists when you picture them together. The edition sold out almost at once.

Afterwards we went back to the house's logotype and refined it: small adjustments to balance and legibility, nothing that changes its character. It's the spirit of grower Champagne, really – made in small numbers, by hand, one at a time.

CREDITS

Designed and crafted by Formgiverne

Documentation moive by Formgiverne

Music by Charlie Alexander and Frankly My Dear

CLIENT QUOTE

"We're thrilled with our limited Blanc de Noir 2017 cuvée! Each etiquette forms part of a beautiful 500-piece canvas. The film documenting the process has people talking, adding to the unforgettable experience!"

– Hannah & Raphael Piconnet, Champagne Domaine De Bichery