Refreshing Grava.

With the decision to bring the Spanish wines into New Zealand and a new decade ahead of the winery, it felt like time for a refresh.

Change is a vital element in winemaking.  A season changes, wine develops in the bottle and vines age. As we entered into our second decade, it felt timely and respectful to make a few changes that reflect our story a little better.

It doesn’t mean it wasn’t scary. Change can be confronting, both for us and our customers. We wanted to ensure Grava felt modest but bold, accessible but premium. We needed a hand.

The strategy

We had been working alongside Morven McAuley of Tradecraft to develop and implement some clear strategies to propel Grava forward. This wasn’t just in a business sense. It had to be enjoyable for us as well as proving to be a sound and well-considered business offering.

Once we’d established the things we hoped to achieve and Morven had outlined how we might implement those ideas, it was time to consider how Grava should be portrayed, or what story connects us to the land and the land to the wine. We had to ask ourselves, how well does the outside of our bottle reflect who we are and how we enjoy wine? What way does our wine connect with our lives?

Included in Morven’s work was how we might find a unique way to share the story of Grava, which if you weren’t already aware, is Spanish for Gravel. Morven wrote “Grava is a brand that is informed by the inclusion of a total sensory experience. Gravel has its own unique attributes that distinguish it from other materials. Namely an extremely distinct sound. A crunch. This is something to explore and perhaps a place where we can both outline the land and its contribution to the end wines but also experiment and have some fun from a creative and interactive perspective.”

This realisation led to the exploration of how we experience wine. Engaging all senses beyond just the traditional wine tasting elements of sight, smell and taste and by including touch and sound, we looked at how we might guide people to think beyond how wine tastes but rather how we connect with it, how we interact with it and its purpose in the context of our lives. We also added the sense of mood to the experience. How you feel while you’re drinking a glass of wine can contribute massively to how you remember that wine. We felt it was an omission not to consider ‘mood’ as our sixth sense.

The designers

Part of Morven’s work includes facilitating creatives who can get the job done and in this case, find designers who would relate to us. She introduced us to Arch & Jane MacDonnell and Toby Curnow of Inhouse — an Auckland based graphic design studio responsible for some of our favourite New Zealand wine labels. Importantly, though, the expertise of Inhouse extends well beyond the category into art, book publication, architectural design fit-outs and beyond. The list is long! This wide understanding of what punctures a customer’s autopilot proved to be not just reassuring but absolutely vital. Inhouse was hired.

The design

As Arch and Toby navigated how to convey the importance of our sensory engagement in wine experience, discussion led to ways to include all senses, like touch and sound.

A number of conceptual ideas were presented to us, all unique and fascinating in their own right but the last one in the line up was a concept simply called, Dot_Dot_Dot.

Directly inspired by Braille, Arch and Toby outlined the idea that braille lettering could be a key touch point for our brand (literally). It gives us a distinct visual language that is sensitive to touch; embossed print finishes offer a tactile experience that engage the senses. Textures create a physical connection, adding depth to printed materials.

These dots that form the braille language would act as a visual metaphor to represent gravel, grapes, tapas, barrels, wine glasses, etc. They create a versatile and abstract representation of these wine-related elements, allowing for a minimal yet sophisticated brand identity. We liked it — a lot.

With the dots established as the visual cues, the colours must ground the branding. The primary colours that drive the brand convey an earthy, edible quality that work well when reversed to reflect the two winemaking regions of Grava, New Zealand and Spain.

The secondary colours, designed to be available to add visual depth to the brand story, allow the rustic colours of Spain to capture tradition and heritage. Earthy tones like terracotta, ochre and olive green reflect the warm character of Spanish landscapes and architecture.

The word mark, while offering modernity, speaks to old, established Spanish typography that you might see hand-painted on a cantina in the village and where a sherry and some tapas might be enjoyed. Playful but deeply connected. There was unanimous approval for the word mark.

The assets

With the word mark, label design and colour palette all finalised, the next challenge was to craft workable assets that supported the new artwork and the sensory exploration of the brand.

Returning once again to Morven’s extensive rolodex of creative contacts, we were introduced to photographer Bonny Beattie. Bonny and Morven have worked together on a number of winery projects over the last decade which, as we’ve now discovered, leads to a level of mutual communication that results in ridiculously efficient creative production. Bonny captured images both onsite at Grava but also at perfectly fitting sites in various Wellington locations that absolutely brought the Grava palette alive. It’s fair to say, Bonny absolutely nailed the brief.

Another project that was undertaken was how to engage those additional senses for exploring the brand. As part of our own personal wine appreciation we had conveyed to Morven in our original strategy workshop, that we wanted the branding to feel premium but also be relaxed, approachable. We didn’t want our wines to intimidate anyone nor did we want the brand to conform as such. As we worked through this pathway, we agreed that the sensory exploration of Grava would be hard to convey in simple tasting notes. Inspired by our own love of art and music, Morven suggested visual tasting notes that invite the viewer to ‘fall into the wine’ supported by a musical score that ‘felt like the wine tasted’. It sounds whacky but we enjoyed the idea of doing something different. And, although a deeply considered approach, navigating a wine this way invites a more playful and curious exploration of wine and so our ‘listen tasting’ notes were created. You can read more about that process and the artists here >

Going live

Here we are. You’re in it. You’re surrounded by it. You’re soaking up this wonderfully earthen brown that feels warm like the soils of Summer and edible like the umami flavours of iberico jamon, punctuated only by bright, cherry tomato-like dots that speak of the wine inside the bottle.

Spend a little time with Grava. Forget about what’s outside the front door or the chores you have to do for just a minute or two. Restore calm. Find a little joy.

Welcome to Grava.

Photographs by Bonny Beattie.

Thank you to Kisa Restaurant in Wellington for location support.