‘We only have one planet,’ says Pharrell Williams. And that means, he says, that we have a duty. ‘This is the one home that we have, and we’re not doing what we should be doing as a species that appreciates its one and only home.’

If this sounds more like political activism than a promotional narrative for a luxury goods product, then, frankly, that’s because it is. Williams, a multi Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, music and film producer, whose mercurial talent also sees him as the driving force behind music, fashion, art and entertainment multimedia venture i am OTHER, has lent his support to the French cognac house of Louis XIII. Primarily, it seems, because it gives him a platform to speak out against climate change and the bad science of its deniers.

We are in Shanghai for the debut of a song, a one-off performance Williams has written specifically for Louis XIII cognac. ‘I just wanted to do something a bit different,’ he says. ‘I thought, let me just troll all the pseudoscientists that don’t care about the ecosystem’

The idea is that he will play his composition in front of a select audience of 100 guests. Smartphones will be confiscated so no-one can record the event, and afterwards, a ‘vinyl’ disc, fashioned from clay from the Cognac region (the only one ever so-made) on which the song has been recorded, will be put in a safe. For 100 years.

The point being made is that if the song – entitled One Hundred Years – is to survive until 2117, we must all ensure that the planet also survives. The safe that will house it is vulnerable to water, and the clay disc will disintegrate if it comes into contact with H2O.

‘We will preserve the disc only if we care about the planet,’ says Ludovic du Plessis, the man at Louis XIII who is co-ordinating this elaborate project. Sure, it’s a piece of marketing for the firm, which has as its motto, ‘Think 100 Years Ahead’, but there is serious intent here. Du Plessis explains, ‘Mother nature is at the heart of what we do.’ So, respect for the earth is paramount. ‘For us at Louis XIII there is nothing more important than the soil.’

Louis XIII, named after the French king who granted permission to the farmers of Cognac to cultivate the land there, is something of a byword for exclusivity and excellence. Owned by Rémy Martin, it is made from what those in the know refer to as eaux de vie. These are distilled spirits that are blended to make the finished product by cellar masters, who like the alchemists of old, combine their ingredients in secret.

‘Each cellar master is building on the work of his predecessors,’ explains du Plessis. Since 1874, when it was first produced by Paul-Émile Rémy Martin, each successive cellar master puts away selected eaux de vie for those who will follow him to use further down the line. Louis XIII is a blend of up to 1,200 eaux de vie, sourced purely from Grande Champagne wine growers. Some eaux de vie in blends of Louis XIII can date back a century. ‘To drink Louis XIII is to drink time,’ says du Plessis.

This is what gave rise to the 100 Years song idea, which is itself the second in a programme of events by the house designed to focus our attention on the passage of time. The first was a movie directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring John Malkovich, which was made in 2015 and already resides in a vault in Cognac.

Called, 100 Years: The Movie You Will Never See, the completed film didn’t even get a screening, which lead some conspiracy theorists to suggest it was never actually made. Du Plessis insists it was, but this is why here in Shanghai 100 guests will witness Williams’ creation before it is locked away for our great grandchildren.

We need to understand that the real luxury today is not wealth or the possession of goods, but time

The idea clearly appeals to Williams: ‘I agreed to do this because I thought that it was super admirable that Louis XIII – and Rémy Martin – was interested in [the] preservation of this planet; and the idea that I got to air out the way I felt to the pessimists. That excited me.’

Later on, in a dramatically lit circular venue somewhere in the belly of Shanghai, we gather to hear the work. Williams appears on stage with a shiny disc the colour of burnt umber, decorated with red fleurs-de-lys, a motif of French royalty and of the house of Louis XIII.

The song plays, the sound quality raw. It has a country vibe and is, as Williams promised earlier, a sarcastic calling-out of climate change deniers. After a while there is a drop as it transitions into more familiar Williams beats territory. And then it is over, amid toasts with the cognac itself, served in small quantities of what are known, serendipitously perhaps, as ‘drops’.

The artist then puts the disc into the safe, in which it is briefly viewed behind bullet-proof glass before the door locks, and the after-party begins. A digital clock on the safe begins a countdown to a century in the future, at which point the container will automatically open in its resting place in the Louis XIII cellars in Cognac. Provided the rising sea level has not got to it first.

‘It is important that we do what we can,’ says du Plessis. ‘So this is a call to action. And it is important too that we understand that the real luxury today is not wealth or the possession of goods – but time. This project is a tribute to the relationship of Louis XIII with time.’

louisxiii-cognac.com