Nine Oaks Wine & Spirit

Agency: MAD CONSORT
Creative Director: Anna Addison
Strategy & Copy Writer: Kendra Rainey
Photographer: Matthijs Uivel
Location: Georgia
Project Type: Produced
Client: Nine Oaks Estate
Product Launch Location: Global
Packaging Contents: Wine
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Glass, paper, linen material
Printing Process: Foil, clear foil, screenprint

NINE OAKS MAKES WINE—AND FRIENDS.
This exciting collaboration between a Georgian winemaker, a fearless designer, and their lifelong friends brings traditional Georgian wine and spirits made with minimal intervention to the world and you.

“I work with spirit. 🙂 However, for the first time in spirit packaging design I was very nervous, yet excited. The wine was very serious, rare and it tasted so good, that I had a lot of fear that I would fail to reflect its’ quality and beauty on the outside. Lucky for me, wine is a slow slow process, so I had time to develop and craft the current brand strategy and visual language of the brand.” – Anna Addison

Brand development and visual identity for Nine Oaks Estate.
Nine Oaks Wine not only became a client but also my passion, my family and understanding the winemaking process huge part of my life. As an art director and designer, I also became the client and threw myself in the middle of it all. It was necessary to develop a new brand platform, mission, vision, and visual identity, for the wine to reflected the high quality of the wine, its’ rarity, and the spirit of our circle of friends.

Our mission and goal at the winery is to make really good traditional Georgian wine from single varietal grapes that are made with minimal intervention, respect for the land and for all our proudcts to tell a story and be beautifuly designed. The internal brand promise at Nine Oaks is to make wine that is first good enough for us to enjoy with our family and friends, and then to proudly share it with the rest of the world. Thus the brand is built around the circle of friends, and our core values.

Story behind the visual identity. The custom red mark inside the master logo reflects the seasons and the circle of friends. The circle houses the number 9 in the negative space, a feeling of love and warm embrace, 3 moons symbolise the three wine seasons, and the overall graphic reflects the motion of stirring the wine inside the Qvevri. Every bottle on the side of the label tells a little story and has a place for a message, so it can be gifted and signed for a special occasion.

Story behind the label design. I did a shelf study in the Georgian market and strategically made the packaging white, fresh and bold with a hand-drawn letter G for high visibility and contrast. The “dancing G” on the label has several meanings. It has the letter 9, the “g” for Georgia and a vibrant motion of a dance. Wine for Georgians is life, love, blood, sweat and tears. It’s EVERYTHING!! Wine is a dance and our wines’ amazing taste reflects the love and care with which Mamuka Khurtsidze makes the wine. With that in mind the G represents the Georgian traditional dance, it’s a line that’s constantly moving, changing and dancing, it is vibrant and it has a story to tell.

The Spirit packaging is called “ChaCha”, which is Georgian version of grappa, this spirit is made from grapes. The bottle shape is revolutionary for the Georgian market, it is funky, square and little which makes it for a more special and unique gift to reflect the premium product inside. Our Chacha also has a special pouch packaging, custom sewn to its body shape, with a red ribbon and the recognizable dancing G for minimal branding. This packaging and pouch is designed to be reused and kept as a keepsake.

Nine Oaks Wine Challenges. Unique approach

• Not Atlanta Georgia. Nine Oaks Wine is a unique challenge of wine design and brand building due to a lack of education about the geographical location of Georgia.
• The saturation of wine in Georgia and in the world. (Everyone makes wine in Georgia in their homes! How does a new wine cut through the clutter and elbow its way in?)
• Education on Georgian traditional style of winemaking.
• Braking in new category. What is Amber wine? Education on Georgian traditional style of makeing Amber wines. (a.k.a. long skin-contact wines)
• Natural Wine Education. Educating the consumer on benefits of drinking bio or biodynamic wine and the complexity of making wine with minimal intervention.
• Why this is a premium wine? Communication about the value in supporting single origin and single varietal vineyards.