Sight + Sound.
Tasting notes are a bit of a workhorse when it comes to describing wine—they’re practical, informative, and help set expectations. As scientists and self-confessed tech sheet nerds, we love a good set of wine facts, which is why we’ve included them right on the label. With that covered, we had the freedom to explore a more creative way to share what Grava wines are all about.
Grava means “gravel” in Spanish—a material with its own distinct character, including a very specific sound: that unmistakable crunch. That realisation led us to think about how we experience wine with all our senses, and it became the foundation for our label design.
Wine tasting is such a personal experience, influenced by mood, setting, and even the people we’re with. So, instead of focusing purely on flavour, we started exploring how wine connects with us in different ways. It was a fascinating (and fun) process that led us to a new kind of tasting note—one that plays with sight and sound.
It would have been easy to lean into the classic terroir story of gravel, but we wanted something less predictable. So, we started with the simple act of walking down a gravel road, recording the crunch beneath our feet. That sound became another layer in how we describe our wines—another way to connect with the experience beyond just words.
Sound is everywhere in winemaking. Malolactic fermentation in a barrel? That’s a soft snap, crackle, and pop, signaling a natural shift in the wine.
A healthy vineyard hums with bees, birdsong, and the rustle of wind through leaves. Even the way wind moves through a valley or across different hills has a unique sound.
Once we started paying attention, we couldn’t ignore just how much sound shapes our surroundings.
At the heart of Grava is the belief that wine is a conduit to good times. We love the science behind it, but let’s be real—when you’re sharing a bottle with friends, you’re not thinking about pH levels.
Most of us experience stories through digital platforms these days, so we leaned into that to create something truly immersive—tasting notes you can see and hear. We teamed up with creative artists to bring this idea to life.
The wines needed a soundtrack so we enlisted musical siblings Rose Stevenson, a violinist currently completing her Masters in Performance Violin at Auckland University Music School and Louis Stevenson, a violinist and trumpet performer with the Dunedin-based band Ivy. Rose had joined us for a tasting where, together, we made notes as you would at a formal tasting—sight, smell, taste. But this time, we added two new elements: sound and mood. How did the wine make us feel and how would that translate into music? Part of the brief to the artists included to create a moment of serenity and intrigue. Make something that feels thought-provoking but also restorative.
With Louis and Rose’s beautiful compositions in hand, filmmaker Benj Brooking took the tasting notes and soundscapes and translated them into visual form. His brief was to go macro—to zoom in on textures, colours, and movement in a way that made you feel like you are submerged in Grava, that it is all around you.
Benj experimented with different materials—slicing plums paper-thin and backlighting them to capture their delicate texture, using fine flour drifting through light to symbolize soil structure and mouthfeel, and even gold dust particles to hint at a wine’s zest and tanginess and complexity.
This project was an absolute joy to create and has changed the way we ‘see’ our wines. So, grab your headphones, take a moment, and immerse yourself in an artistic impression of Grava by these three wonderful creative people.
Listen >
Strategy & Creative Direction — Morven McAuley
Composition — Rose Stevenson, Louis Stevenson
Violin, Guitar, Trumpet, Percussion, Vocals — Rose Stevenson, Louis Stevenson
Film Direction & Execution — Benj Brooking
Thank you to Tom Healy for his Sound Engineering support