A new wine language created with nature’s energy.
Role
Brand Positioning
Naming
Art Direction
Brand & Packaging Design
Finished Art
UNDERSTAND
French winemakers Wine Reef have dedicated over 17 years perfecting a world first subsea wine making process of secondary fermentation. Their process involves secondary fermenting at a constant temperature, in a pressured environment and then employing the Southern Ocean to continually stir the wine, while suspended at a depth of 20 metres, creating flavours that are not achievable on land.
The mystery of nature doesn’t stop there, because its energy is random every immersion (vintage) has its own character, expressing the truth of that season. There are no two underwater wine vats that will be the same.
They have partnered with Rare Foods who have developed a world first with their commercial abalone ranch on their lease of 413 hectares of seabed off Augusta. Together they have created Australia’s inaugural Wine Reef, the beginning of a new era in Australian winemaking.
POSITION
Inspired by the pioneers who have built a world class premium wine industry. Sub Sea Estate is positioned as Australia’s most innovative and exciting wine makers, with new flavours and
wine experiences.
Brand Promise
Stirred by Nature.
Ideate
Bringing together three truths into one powerful idea; the ability of nature to transform, the restless energy of nature and, the ability of nature’s truth to stir us on a profoundly deep level.
Our approach to the brand identity was to craft something simple, modern, and bold, capturing Subsea Estate’s unique position in the Australian wine category. The logo wordmark was designed to embody the transformative winemaking process, driven by the ocean’s energy and movement. Anchoring the logo at the bottom of the label references the wine vats’ remarkable journey, immersed 20 metres below the ocean’s surface, where they’re securely held.
For the neck of the bottle, we created a unique flag label, inspired by the diver down flags used globally to indicate divers below. We used two styles of flags for the first application, each denoting a different style of wine.
The logo and packaging are supported by additional brand assets drawn from the world of diving including navigational style lines, nautical typography, and brand photography that challenges traditional vineyard-heavy wine imagery, instead showcasing the ocean and raw coastline of the Southern Ocean.
PLAN / Implement
The final brand identity was rolled out across the bottles from the inaugural immersion for the launch in November 2024. This was supported by social tiles and website focused on building suspense and anticipation, telling the unique story of Subsea Estate.
