Last week during ARCOmadrid, champagne house Ruinart debuted a special collaboration with the artist Ignasi Monreal. Introduced with an installation at the fair and a celebratory dinner, the artist’s tromp l’oeil images can now be found painted onto the second skin cases of 18 special bottles (10 Blanc de Blancs and 8 Rosé) as the basis of a greater initiative surrounding the maison’s interest in sustainability.
Ruinart’s collaboration with Ignasi Monreal, courtesy of Ruinart.
Ruinart’s collaboration with Ignasi Monreal, courtesy of Ruinart.
Known for his deceptive and realistic paintings (like a series of painted plates that appear to be full of half-eaten or the remains of delicious food), Monreal has imagined two designs for the Ruinart bottles, which were created around the biodiversity initiatives they represent. For the Blanc de Blancs, a golden sleeve painted to mimic the bottle’s contents depicts a life-sized bumblebee, perched on the surface. And for the Rosé, a purple second skin also masquerades as the bottle underneath, featuring a pink label where sits a Monarch butterfly, ready to drink the nectar within.
Ruinart’s collaboration with Ignasi Monreal, courtesy of Ruinart.
Ruinart’s collaboration with Ignasi Monreal, courtesy of Ruinart.
These special edition bottles (which were available for purchase during the fair) represent several efforts directed at reforestation and biodiversity recovery in the Champagne region’s town of Taissy. Called the “Vitiforestry” project, this initiative includes the replanting of trees and greenery between the historic vineyards in Taissy—a pilot program to replenish biodiversity. The sale of Monreal’s bottles also saw all proceeds given to the NGO (FOR)Forest Project, which also works in areas of raising ecological awareness and reforestation efforts. Furthermore, the second skin case itself (first introduced in 2020) is better for the environment than ever before, with a new design made of paper sourced from eco-managed forests in Europe that poses a carbon footprint reduced by 60 percent.
Ruinart’s installation at ARCOmadrid, courtesy of Ruinart.
Ruinart’s installation at ARCOmadrid, courtesy of Ruinart.
