Hennessy heralds a brand-new cycle in the Chinese calendar through a monumental composition by Yan Pei-Ming, one of the world's most celebrated and sought-after contemporary artists.

Renowned for his portraits of animals and famous personalities, Yan Pei-Ming honours the Year of the Rabbit with a monumental painting, depicting the rabbit, and all the 12 animals of the zodiac.

The allegory is one of togetherness in diversity. The work's true subject, the artist notes, is not one animal or another, or even the cognac itself. Instead, Yan Pei-Ming focused on capturing light. "When you hold a bottle of cognac up to sunlight, its hues and transparency vary so much. I wanted to portray cognac — but it's light that is really the colour of this painting," the artist says.