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On Jan. 1 of this year, Moet & Chandon introduced a new Brut Imperial magnum with decorations touting the upcoming millennium. Based in Epernay, France, Moet chose Sterling Group (New York, NY) to design the limited-edition bottle.
"We wanted to create something special that people would enjoy using during the millennium celebration," says Stuart Foster, senior brand manager at Moet. "At the same time, we wanted to communicate that this is not a new wine, but the Brut Imperial you'd expect."
Sterling designed a couple of subtle yet special ways to dress up this 11/2-L bottle. The conventional paper label is replaced with a textured label made from a heavier card-stock material. The label has the appearance of a hand-printed card. It's offset-printed in four colors, with gold hot-stamping replacing the gold-colored ink ordinarily used.
Over the cork is a gold aluminum capsule with the word "Moet" screen-printed in black. The capsule is crimped, and a silk ribbon is placed over the ends. This silk neck tie replaces the usual paper neck tie. The tie is printed by Chaleyer et Canet (Saint Etienne, France) with gold hot-stamping spelling out the year 2000 and the words "Brut Imperial." The hand-cut ribbons are applied by hand and fastened to the bottle with a red wax seal.
Single magnums are available wherever wine is sold nationally and retail for about $75. Moet has also created two special packages for the champagne. The first is a round tin that holds one magnum and a countdown watch. The second is a metal briefcase that holds two magnums, a disposable camera, a silver picture frame and a permanent silver pen for autographing the bottle. These packages retail for $140 and $200 respectively.
