Last month I designed wine labels for three new cuvées for the Domaine Back in Alsace. "Riesling. E.T.", "La Cuvée des Amis", and "Les Septs Cépages".
"Riesling. ET" translates to "Riesling. And" and is a nod from the winemakers to their production process for this particular wine. They pressed riesling grapes over already pressed gewurztraminer grape skins. Creating a minimal skin contact with two profiles impacting the character of the wine. Inspired by this process, I illustrated this cuvée with the main character "the riesling" represented by a woman drawn with stonecarving inspired texture and antiquitous decorative spirals for hair. The breasts covered by vine leaves, she holds up the gewurztraminer grapes accented by a watercolor wash reflecting the zinging acidity and peps of the varietals.
"La Cuvée des Amis" roughly translates to "the Wine for Friends" and is a delicious glou glou amber skin contact made from sylvaner grapes and macerated for two weeks. For this illustration I wanted to highlight how this wine will be enjoyed as it was mostly crafted for friends to drink care free. This watercolor portrait of three friends captures a tender moment found in any late night natural wine party scene. As many friends join around a long table, stories are exchanged, philosophies are shared, and endless bottles are passed around with an encouraging "Goutte moi ça" (have a taste). I chose a deep orange and meshed it through the illustration as the primary color supported by warm earth tones.
The last cuvée is entitled "Les Sept Cépages" (the seven varietals), a big blend of seven types of grapes done in the Alsatian white blend style of putting together everything that is planted in one plot of vines. For this illustration, I created a motif representing sparrows with one highlighted in a multifaceted amber color, representing the hue of the wine itself. I chose sparrows because they are always in groups yet hold so much individuality. Also sparrows are common visitors on the domaine, as the winemakers have built sparrow nests to encourage them to settle on their roof when they migrate to the north of Alsace in the spring.
For presentation, I created this collage to help perceive dimension and a finished product since the labels will not be applied onto the bottles until Spring 2024. I picked a photograph I had taken a year or so back when I visited the domaine of wild flowers growing near the vines. With black ink I painted a wine bottle which I cut out and used as a dimension reference when creating these labels in the studio. This collage puts these bottles into the context of the artisanal, wildness friendly wine production values that this domaine represents. Natural, free, and unique.
Thanks for reading and checking out my project. Let me know what you think!
All rights reserved to Mona Neilson, 2023.
