Damien Hirst turns Dom Pérignon's shield into a butterfly for 2026

Dom Pérignon has handed its 2026 Limited Edition to British artist Damien Hirst, who reframes his 2001 Kaleidoscope paintings for two special labels. The collaboration covers the house's Dom Pérignon Vintage 2018 and its Rosé Vintage 2010, both reworked around the champagne's distinctive shield label.

The Kaleidoscope series began as brightly coloured butterfly wings arranged in complex concentric patterns, and Hirst has compressed that geometry into miniature shields repeated across each bottle. The Vintage 2018 is a deep blue symbolising infinity and spirituality, while the Rosé 2010 is a warm, gentle pink.

Cultural partnership is not new to the maison. Dom Pérignon launched its first collaboration in 2005 with Karl Lagerfeld, then followed with names including Lady Gaga, David Lynch, Lenny Kravitz, Björk, Jeff Koons, Tokujin Yoshioka, Chris Cunningham and Michael Riedel. Hirst now takes over the baton.

Hirst said the shield's symmetry made the match immediate. "Dom Pérignon's iconic shield is symmetrical down the centre and so it jumped out at me like a butterfly and became my starting point," he said. He cited the shared word assemblage, used in winemaking and in art.

A Dom Pérignon vintage is an assemblage of grapes, and the Kaleidoscope series, in his telling, is an assemblage of butterfly wings collected from the real world. That parallel is what sold him. "I knew straight away," he added.

Hirst admitted to an early worry about capturing the character of each wine. "Through using a minimal set of colours we've done it really well," he said. "It's craftsmanship meets imagination, tradition meets reinvention." He added that the shield now resembles one of his butterflies.

He also praised the house itself, describing skilled craftspeople rather than a factory. "They've worked with amazing artists over the years who've designed some incredible bottles," Hirst said, adding that he loves working with people who think about what they make.

The design is meant to reveal the harmony between a vintage's grapes despite their unpredictable characters. The reminder runs further: vintage champagne is to be savoured rather than simply poured, and details like a bottle's design and the sound it makes when opened carry the impact.

Why the shield became a butterfly

The kaleidoscope is a recurring motif in Hirst's work, founded on transformation and repetition. The labels reinterpret it playfully, miniaturising the maison's shield into a colourful field. The symmetry of the mark suited him, and the motif made it personal.

Hirst's design follows the line begun by Lagerfeld two decades ago, which has made the label a vehicle for named creatives. The champagne itself is vintage-only, so each artist works with a single harvest rather than a blend across years.

Asked who he would gift a bottle to, Hirst named Jack White. Hirst owns the Newport Street Gallery, where White has just held an exhibition, and said the bottle would be a congratulations on that show and on the music White makes, adding, "I'd give it to Jack White as a congratulations on his Newport Street Gallery exhibition."

"I'd give it to Jack White as a congratulations on his Newport Street Gallery exhibition," Hirst said. He hoped White would see the show as a work of collaboration, in which Hirst had to understand White's work in order to help it shine.

What we know and what is missing

Our brand page on Dom Pérignon treats the house as an entry point into premium champagne. A named-artist limited edition of this kind extends that positioning, tying a single harvest to one artist's recurring motif and to a label already known worldwide.

Neither the run size nor the pricing has been disclosed, so the scarcity and the cost remain open questions. The edition also carries no release date beyond 2026, and no edition number has been stated for either bottle.

The label's lineage is clear all the same: a 2001 painting series, a collaboration history stretching back to 2005, and two vintages, 2018 and Rosé 2010, carried by a shield turned butterfly. Dom Pérignon's own site is domperignon.com.