BEST PACKAGE REDESIGN
Juniper Cornerstone Wilyabrup Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
It is seemingly an unwritten rule in the wine trade that producers no matter how famous, are usually associated with one wine. Juniper Cornerstone Wilyabrup Cabernet Sauvignon is the wine that we wish to be known for nationally and internationally.
- Year wine was released to market: 2020
- Retail Price: $90 AUD
- Designed by: TwofromTwo
- Designed for: Juniper Estate
The Juniper ‘Estate’ vineyard (formerly Wright’s) was planted in 1973 and, together with Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Cullen, Moss Wood and Woodlands, is one of the founding vineyards of the region.
Juniper was established in 1998 (when the Wrights retire) by the late Roger Hill and his wife, Gillian Anderson, with the intention of producing wines which rank among the best to come from Margaret River and beyond. The name Juniper was taken as the artistic Western Australian Juniper family used to own the property that the vineyard occupies. Since 2017 Gillian and Roger’s sons, Nick and Tom, have run the business with the same ambition to make great wines from our own vineyards. Since inception the Juniper branding had remained largely unchanged, and an opportunity was identified to help define what the business stood for by redesigning the labels on the flagship wines. The Cornerstone tier is the foundation of what we are – producers of fine Cabernet and Chardonnay. Site-specific wines produced from two of our sustainably-farmed vineyards in Margaret River. Cornerstone is the sum of our efforts to produce the best single-vineyard chardonnay and cabernet that express each of our unique, but equally as exceptional, sites. Our aim, by presenting single vineyard wines from our northern ‘Estate’ (Wilyabrup) and southern ‘Higher Plane’ (Karridale) vineyards has been to embody each of these respective sub-regions, thereby offering substantially different flavour profiles and experiences for the customer.
The Cornerstone tier becomes our premium flagship range, by replacing and adding to what is presently known as the ‘Estate’ tier. Cornerstone is a manifestation of both our evolving story, and growth as a premium Margaret River wine brand. Our decision to move away from the existing Robert Juniper art (‘Wilyabrup Reminiscence’) was not a simple one, however we have opted for a label design utilising clean, bold text and negative space to create a premium, timeless feel.
Our decision to house two interpretations of each grape under the one tier reflects our serious approach to these varieties and their status as essential elements of the Juniper story.
The Wilyabrup Cabernet will continue to come from our 1973-planted, dry-grown vineyard. The Wilyabrup Chardonnay will come from the tiny holdings of dry-grown Gingin and 95 clones we have on the original estate. Historically, the ‘Estate’ Chardonnay has been a blend of our Wilyabrup and Karridale sites.
The Cabernet and Chardonnay for the single-vineyard Cornerstone Karridale wines will come from the very best blocks on our ‘Higher Plane’ vineyard, planted in 1997.
A strong, loyal following for the brand which has used the same design cues and artworks throughout various touchpoints of their business, including their labels, since inception. The goal was threefold. Firstly, to modernise the labels without ostracizing the customers. Secondly, ensureing the labels speak to the premium price point of the wine. Lastly, ensuring the labels speak to the crucial provenance and terroir of the wines.
The design solution for the Cornerstone labels began with taking a refund approach. By stripping back the labels to their most simple, crucial information we were able to convey refinement and elegance in the labels, which better reflects the characteristics of the high-quality wine within.
Making the brand name and Worldmark the ‘hero’ of the label allowed us to present the Juniper name as the crucial element of the wine quality and experience - indicating to the customer that it is still the Juniper wine they love and removing the artwork and font from the label doesn’t change the people, produce or approach that define the brand. We want to modernise the look to invite a new group of people into our world, to welcome a new generation of drinkers, but we are still Juniper at the core.
With only two wine varietals in the range, with two single-vineyard wines in each variety - the use of colour was a simple and highly effective device used to tell the story of the vineyards each wine came from. Ochre red was chosen to indicate wines from our regeneratively-farmed vineyard in Wilyabrup and green was used to represent the wines from our regeneratively-farmed Karridale vineyard. The Wilyabrup vineyard being our original estate vineyard that the brand was founded on (and home to our winery and cellar door facilities), the core brand colour of ochre red was the obvious choice to represent these vines. The secondary brand colour green was then selected to represent the Karridale vineyard, providing a clear contrast and easily identifiable difference between the two labels when sitting side-by-side on retail shelves, and reflective of the notable differences in expression these subregions are renowned for.
TwofromTwo's design has had a profound effect on our flagship wine. It has enabled us to raise the price point of the wines in the tier, and be accorded respect for the quality, history and uniqueness of both the sites in question and the wines they produce.
