A dynamic portfolio of modern wine brands is represented by Fourth Wave Wine, which collaborates with family-owned wineries to create authentic and regionally expressive wines. The selection includes brands such as Elephant in the Room, Little Giant, and Tread Softly, from Australia and Spain’s Elefante, Maretti from Northern Italy, and Le Chat Noir from France.
Famous for its châteaux and its aristocratic heritage, the Loire Valley is under-represented when it comes to wine packaging and identity. To make it more appealing to consumers, the brand approached drinks design specialist Denomination, asking the creatives here to design a brand identity for La Noblesse, a wine that’s available in Australia starting this month and in Europe as of March 2021. The new visuals are a beautiful ode to the region, as Nicholas Crampton, Director of Fourth Wave Wine, says: “We believe this is the wine brand that the Loire Valley deserves.”
The agency gave up the cliché motifs, such as the ubiquitous châteaux, replacing them with cropped images of members of the nobility, for whom the Loire was their playground. The brand’s name looks like being written in chalk, an effect used to imitate the practice adopted by traditional French wine shops, in which prices are marked on the bottle with white Chinagraph crayon. As for the labels, they are printed with images of aristocrats whose identities are hidden because their portraits are not fully presented.
Rowena Curlewis, CEO of Denomination, says: “It’s unmistakably French and high-quality, but with stacks of attitude to open it up to new demographics and make it more relevant to modern consumers. The engraving style and subject matter lend the project a degree of seriousness. But there’s an approachability, too, thanks to the chalk-pen branding. And humor is achieved with the ‘Off with their heads’ cropping and yellow capsules.”
Crampton adds: “We believe it’s time for the Loire Valley to stand up and be counted as a wine region. It has such strong consumer awareness as a place to visit, but just lacked that same awareness for its wines. We knew that, with Denomination’s expertise, they would be able to make a statement without compromising history, integrity, and Old-World legacy. La Noblesse is brave, it pushes boundaries, it makes a statement.”
Each visual element marries the other, delivering the range in a way that fulfills modern consumers’ needs. The identity is “distinctly Gallic,” says the agency in a press release, and shows that one can present a serious wine in a modern way, without compromising its rich history.
Credits:
Client: Fourth Wave Wine
Agency: Denomination