Rémy Martin partners with Chinese artist Xue Song to celebrate the Lunar New Year

The House of Rémy Martin has announced an exceptional partnership with renowned Chinese artist Xue Song to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

To mark the arrival of the Year of the Horse, Xue Song has created a new artwork in collaboration with Rémy Martin, featuring the Centaur – the House’s emblem – which has inspired a series of limited-edition Lunar New Year gift boxes for Rémy Martin XO and VSOP.

Xue Song is a 2024 Hurun Top 100 Chinese artist with a unique Pop Art style that transforms disparate printed fragments into meaningful images. Inspired by the idea of the Centaur paving the way, Xue has fused collage and Chinese ink to create his 1.8m x 1.2 meter masterpiece, which features the Centaur leading a pack of horses into the future.

The horse represents strength, speed and perseverance in the Chinese zodiac, while the Centaur connects the earth and skies, with its feet on the ground and head looking to the stars. Xue Song’s vivid, symbolic artwork has galloped onto special edition bottles and gift boxes for Lunar New Year 2026. Highly collectible limited-edition presentations of Rémy Martin XO and Rémy Martin VSOP are on shelf now in the travel retail channel.

The travel retail roll-out of the Rémy Martin 2026 LNY limited editions is being supported by a series of high-profile activations in leading airport locations. These include Hong Kong, Singapore, London Heathrow, Dubai, Taiwan, Osaka, Bangkok, Melbourne and Istanbul, among others.

Enhancing the consumer journey

The consumer journey is thoughtfully curated across multiple touchpoints that include impactful in-store activations and eye-catching merchandising and product displays. In selected markets, the journey is further elevated with the traditional red Hongbao envelopes featuring Xue Song’s LNY limited edition design elements as a gift for purchasing customers. The shopping experience is also reinforced through coordinated communications developed in collaboration with retail partners, ensuring storytelling and visibility across retail channels.

To enhance engagement, the activations feature a Lunar New Year ritual experience, which invites shoppers to create a personalized greeting card, crafted using woodblock stamps and Chinese calligraphy. Shoppers are guided to create their own spring couplet with the campaign’s tagline – 邑马当先 (Centaur Paving the Way), to convey blessings of prosperity and auspicious beginnings, alongside custom-designed motifs that fuse the key design elements of the artist collaboration.

“For Chinese travelers, Lunar New Year represents a peak period for premium gifting, and cognac naturally plays a central role in these celebratory occasions,” noted Rémy Cointreau CEO Global Travel Retail Fida Bou Chabke. “It is therefore a strategic priority for us to amplify the visibility and desirability of the House of Rémy Martin within the global travel retail environment during this holiday season.

“By activating strongly during this high-impact period, we aim not only to reinforce our leadership in cognac, but also to deepen our cultural relevance with traveling consumers. The Rémy Martin X Xue Song collaboration reflects our long-term vision: investing in bold, creative expressions that speak to a new generation while remaining true to our heritage, and fully unlocking the commercial potential of critical consumption moments.”

The 2026 Lunar New Year Collection

The energy and symbolism of Xue Song’s painting have given Rémy Martin XO a festive update. Spirited stallions race behind the golden Centaur on the front of the highly detailed gift box, embossed in glowing metallics against Xue Song’s vibrant red collage. The box slides open to reveal the gift inside, set within a mythical landscape of clouds, bamboo and rocks.

The limited-edition XO decanter and neck collar are decorated with Xue Song’s freshly rendered golden Centaur and colorful elements of his painting, creating an instant collectible to be enjoyed for years to come. Turn the box around to see the full artwork unveiled. At the pinnacle of the Rémy Martin collection, XO is the signature of the Cellar Master, who draws from hundreds of eaux-de-vie to create a cognac of exceptional aromatic complexity.

Good luck and best wishes are captured in the festive limited-edition Rémy Martin VSOP. Ushering in the Year of the Horse, the frosted glass bottle is heightened with a unique label and gift box decorated and embossed with Xue Song’s elegant collage, ideal for giving, celebrating or collecting. As the first VSOP Cognac Fine Champagne ever created, Rémy Martin VSOP is an elegant expression of the Maison’s savoir-faire.

“An imaginative harmony of tradition and modernity, Xue Song’s bold artwork layers the storied heritage of our House with the elegance and rich symbolism of Asia,” commented Rémy Martin General Manager Amaury Vinclet. “Using a rich fusion of color and collage, he magnificently portrays the concept of taking the lead. At the head of the herd, the Rémy Martin Centaur paves the way, striving towards excellence, ushering in an exciting year of infinite possibilities and positivity.”