“There is no printing of labels, there are no stickers, there is no use of paper and less energy is consumed in the bottling line thanks to the elimination of the label component.” “Symply, great wine without the packaging”


Redesign wine packaging, rejecting the superfluous.
Choose a bold design that reduces the use of ink, glue, paper, plastic materials and energy on bottling lines.
Shake up the wine sector, which has always put the impact of the use of plastic on the environment at the center of the debate, rarely considering that even paper labels are part of the problem (since their application on the bottle requires the use of a liner, silicone support)
Environmental concerns have led to a decrease in plastic use, and paper resources have been used to compensate.
The bottle is naked
Crate is the first line of wines in the world without a label, which opens a new path in the packaging imagination, shedding light on new alternative possibilities to conventional design. These are high-quality, barrel-aged wines produced by Australia's main wine regions.
The choice of a design that eliminates all branding materials that are considered “unsustainable” is certainly courageous, considering the role that the label plays today in communication for a wine company, an identity card from which you can draw the useful elements to identify the product, the brand, the regulatory aspects and the “character” of the company.
However, talking about sustainability also means taking risks and going beyond the conventional, exploring other ways of branding and communicating.
Where is all the information?
All the information related to the wine is transferred to the screw cap capsule, designed to be as small as possible (to reduce the plastic raw material): the logo of the producing company, the variety, the region of production, the vintage, the bar code.
Thanks to the inclusion of a QR Code, it is possible to acquire more news through the web, which becomes an additional dimension of exploration.
The narrating cardboard box
The brand clearly states its position on the cardboard of shipping boxes, produced strictly with second (recycled) raw material:
'Our planet matters more than our packaging'
No label: save energy
No Glue: Save Waste
No Paper: Save Trees
Label-free packaging design: Denomination - creative agency specialized in the sustainable development of brands in the Wine & Spirits sector, based in Sidney, London and San Francisco.
Capsule production: ORORA - world leader in the design, production and decoration of glass bottles and aluminum cans. (Australia)
Production of a 100% recycled cardboard box: Visy - global leader in packaging, recycling and logistics (Australia)
Limits to consider
• Exportability of the practice: do regulations in other countries of the world allow the elimination of the label and the concentration of mandatory information in a QR code?
• Is the capsule, which becomes a communication space, really necessary and less impactful than a paper label?
• Does the project consider the digital impact due to the use of a QR code to better understand the characteristics of the wine?
• If many wines adopted the “naked” bottle strategy, what repercussions would there be in terms of recognizability and aesthetic identity?
Potential
• Courageous and radical choices create important “breaking” points with respect to “it has always been done this way”, becoming a starting point for rethinking and questioning - at the same time - established daily choices.
• Sustainability is a dynamic balance, it must be constantly addressed and, if necessary, rethought.
2009
An Australian family-run company, established in 2009, Fourth Wave Wine has become one of the most dynamic wineries in the world with a portfolio of market-leading wine brands, including Tread Softly, Little Giant, Elephant in the Room, The Hero and Farm Hand. The winery works closely with a small number of like-minded family owned wineries to create a range of authentic and regionally expressive wines from six countries, including Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain and Argentina. Social Responsibility: Fourth Wave Wine recognizes the Awabakal people as the traditional guardians of the land where we work. It recognizes the country's traditional guardians across Australia and recognizes their ongoing relationship with the land.
