Celebrity collaborations, as we have often noted, are either pointless cash grabs, or particular and specific expressions of a creator and a brand. The new Anish Kapoor Remy Martin XO Cognac falls firmly into the first camp, being at best pointless, at worst insulting.
According to Kapoor in a press release for this collaboration Remy Martin has special associations for the artist, as their father often drank it, and it had connotations of sophistication which that they wanted to express this with their collaboration. We can't help feeling they failed. There really doesn't seem anything to distinguish this release from the standard XO, other than the rose gold coloured top, and slightly smoothed bottle shape.
You really get the sense that LVMH's marketing department sent a couple of emails to Kapoor's team, and a fee for their name was negotiated, after which a few designs were sent over, one of which Kapoor gave a nod to. Nothing makes this stand out from normal XO, and other than the price, which appears to be about a 15% premium on standard XO at £195 a bottle, it's pretty forgettable in our view.