PONT DES ARTS is an exclusive, limited collection of fine wines and spirits, a bridge between Art and Wine, the East and West, and collectors and newcomers alike. Pont des Arts marries the best from the Art world (such as Zao Wou-Ki, Yue Minjun and Miquel Barceló) and the Wine world (Paul Pontallier and other highly respected wine experts from France).

WHEN FOUNDERS, Arthur de Villepin and Thibault Pontallier, met in Hong Kong in 2010, they shared a common goal: to promote abroad what France does best. Arthur was passionate about art and loved wine, Thibault was passionate about wine and loved art. The project combines their French roots and lifestyle with different cultures and talents.

Pont des Arts has been creating exclusive art and wine collections since 2010 and is now available in more than 20 countries.

© Pont des Arts, Paris - Stéphanie Benjamin

“Pont des Arts is a beautiful story and a bridge, not only between Art & Wine, but also between some of the best regions of wine in the world. Together with my son Thibault, and a few winemakers/friends, we have explored many different terroirs in order to create this limited collection of fine wines.

Our goal is to express the personality of their origin together with our vision of what fine wines should deliver: balance, freshness, enough density but not at the expense of subtlety, and above all, pleasure of drinking!”

Paul Pontallier World-renowned French winemaker

THIBAULT PONTALLIER AND HIS FATHER – the legendary French winemaker Paul Pontallier – spent many years alongside other wine experts from Bordeaux and Burgundy tasting, blending and creating this limited collection of fine wines. They looked for the best terroirs and the best grapes in France, tasting more than 700 different parcels, to realise this unique project. As Arthur de Villepin points out ‘‘the wines themselves are works of Art’’.

THE ART OF WINE

Every bottle produced adorns carefully selected pieces of art, chosen together with the artist, to match the flavor profile of each wine. The two founders went to Zao Wou-Ki’s and Miquel Barceló’s atelier in Paris and Yue Minjun’s in Beijing several times, ensuring the emotions that are evoked when drinking great wine or looking at great art are intrinsically linked through Pont des Arts

THE STORY

Thibault Pontallier and Arthur de VillepinFounders of Pont des Arts

Thibault Pontallier and Paul Pontallier

BRIDGING WORLDS

THE ARTISTS

‘‘TRACING THE EVOLUTION of an artist’s work through a careful selection of the greatest wines cleverly blends two major collecting fields of our time. By developing this concept between France and Asia, it also creates another bridge between Eastern and Western sensibilities.

As our cultural world becomes increasingly diver-sified and sophisticated, ‘Pont des Arts’ presents innovative collaborations for anyone wishing to enter further into the realm of wine and art.’’

François Curiel, President of Christie’s Asia

ZAO WOU-KI was the first artist chosen by Pont des Arts for a collaboration since he perfectly embodies the bridge between East and West. Born in Beijing and lived in France, he is the most famous French-Chinese painter in the world and was one of the first Chinese to become a French citizen upon the request of André Malraux, French Minister of Culture, in 1964. He was a member of the Academie des Beaux Arts, and was nominated Grand Officier de la Legion d’Honneur. His paintings are widely recognised as an exemplary reconciliation of Chinese and European aesthetics, in which the language of modern Western abstraction is enriched by a Chinese chord deeply rooted in the past.

YUE MINJUN is one of the most famous Chinese contemporary artists in the world. Based in Beijing, he is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings frozen in laughter. After having worked with the great master Zao Wou-Ki, it was time to discover and expose an artist representing China’s new generation. Yue Minjun’s work has been collected by many major art institutes, galleries, and museums, where his sharp artistic features have been immensely valuable for Chinese contemporary art & culture’s presence on the world stage. He was featured in Time Magazine’s ‘People Who Mattered’: ‘if the big-picture question of our time is what to make of China, this is the man to paint it’.

MIQUEL BARCELÓ is a Spanish-born contem-porary artist known for his experimental approach to painting and sculpture. This world-renowned artist perfectly embodies the bridge between cultures as his art is a mix between many artistic movements from all around the world. Indeed, throughout the 1980s he travelled extensively across Europe, the United States and West Africa – always returning to Paris which became a second home and where he set up a second studio. Miquel Barceló was the youngest artist ever to be exhibited at the Louvre, he also exhibited at the Picasso Museum in Paris and is the artist behind the decorated ceiling of the United Nations building in Geneva.

THE ARTISTS

Zao Wou-Ki © Mohror, 1973

Yue Minjin, 2004

Miquel Barceló © Xavier Forcioli, 2016

THE WINE COLLECTIONS

PONT DES ARTS offers an exclusive range of exceptional French wines from both Bordeaux and Burgundy produced in limited quantities. It is the first time these two famous regions have been brought together under this unique concept.

Every aspect of the collections are produced and tailor-made in France bringing together the French Art de Vivre. The bottles are beautifully designed with distinctive lithographic quality paper, each have been engraved in Cognac, France, and have a unique shape. The quantities of each wine are engraved on the back of every bottle, exhibiting the exclusivity of the experience.

THE SPIRITS

PONT DES ARTS also offers an exclusive range of spirits made with top French producers such as the Godet Family in Cognac and the House of Samalens in Armagnac. We select and taste just a few old barrels every year to produce these blends of very rare spirits.

Cognac XO - 40 Year Old Fine Champagne‘Infinity’Yue Minjun

50 Year Old Armagnac - Réserve spéciale‘Beyond Life’

Zao Wou-Ki

1888 Armagnac - Lalique Limited Edition‘Long Life’

Zao Wou-KiZao Wou-Ki Collection 2010 Zao Wou-Ki Collection 2011

Yue Minjun Collection 2012 Miquel Barceló Collection

Cognac XO - 40 Year Old ‘Réserve spéciale’

Miquel Barceló

TASTING NOTES