ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601190014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
SOURCE: RAF CASERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
The effervescent pop of champagne corks, followed by the flow of fizzy foam into flutes, is for many the fine art of enjoyment during times of merriment and celebration.
Add a label designed by Roy Lichtenstein, and it is fine art, period.
``Champagne is made for seduction,'' said Claude Taittinger, who asked Lichtenstein to design a 1985 limited-edition bottle for the Taittinger house. ``Champagne deserves a subtle covering.''
Artists have been applying their special touch to wine bottles for more than a century, on anything from the great claret Mouton Rothschild to the less-than-great Vino della Pace.
The best is on view in the ``Art in Wine'' exhibit at the Brussels Credit Communal gallery until March 10.
Lichtenstein's trademark Benday dots seem made for frothy champagne. But other artists, from Pablo Picasso to movie director John Huston, also have designed world-famous labels.
The label-art craze goes back to the inventive French winemaker who needed a special touch to introduce a wine-marketing innovation in 1924 - the ``mise en bouteilles au chateau'' or chateau-bottled wines.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild decided to bottle the harvest himself that year instead of turning it over to wine merchants, and needed a special label to make sure it stood out.
He turned to cubist designer Jean Carlu, who incorporated the de Rothschild trademark ram-and-arrows symbol into a delightfully stylized design.
``It probably was too much ahead of its time,'' said the baron's daughter, Philippine de Rothschild. The label was discontinued after two years, but the idea of custom-designed labels lived on.
Philippe de Rothschild turned to a little-known artist, Philippe Jullian, to create the 1945 label incorporating the V sign for the Allied victory in World War II. ``It was an immediate success,'' Philippine de Rothschild said.
Another watershed year was 1955, when cubist Georges Braque offered his services. He started a series of Rothschild labels that now look like a who's-who of contemporary art: Salvador Dali, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Georg Baselitz and Francis Bacon.
None of the artists was paid cash for his contribution, but each received an undisclosed number of cases of the superb wines.
Mouton Rothschild has become a classic series and a trendsetter.
``Philippe de Rothschild preceded me,'' Taittinger said. ``I decided to follow him.''
The tradition puts lovers of art and wine in a bind.
Taittinger bottles are fully covered in the design, and breaking the cap means damaging the art. ``Consuming is destroying,'' Taittinger said.
Since Victor Vasarely designed the 1978 bottle, the price has soared 50-fold and continues to climb every time someone succumbs to the temptation.
Los Angeles native Peter Goldstein once owned a 1983 Taittinger bottle designed by Portuguese artist Vieira da Silva - only to drink it.
``It was just another bottle of champagne to me,'' he said. ``Now I know the sad truth.'' The bottle now holds flowers in his Brussels apartment.
Some bottles are designed just to promote peace. Italy's Vino della Pace features labels by a melting pot of artists, from Korea's Nam June Paik to France's Arman, and each year the winemaker sends its product to all world leaders.
With wine becoming a global affair, label art has quickly followed suit.
In California, Clos Pegase stands out with elegant labels, featuring the likes of Max Ernst. The love of art is also visible in its Napa Valley winery, which is designed by postmodern architect Michael Graves.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB