Mudgee Ridge Estate is a family owned vineyard nestled in the hills of Mudgee which produces the ‘First Ridge’ range of low yielding, predominantly Italian wines. With a desire to expand the vineyards offering with differing product ranges in the future, we needed to dial up the vineyards master brand and position them as the authority behind the expanding stable of offerings.

We took a holistic look at this boutique vineyards brand positioning and personality, and with an obvious need to make them stand out in a particularly crowded market sector, we wanted to develop both a visual and verbal expression that told the Mudgee Ridge story in a unique manner. Taking cues from their tools of the trade, geographic location and wine making process contributed to achieve the earthy tone we were looking for.

In keeping with the brands boutique position, we created a simple and modern identity that uses a monogram created by crossing an ‘M’ with the visual of rows of vineyard lines that cascade over the ridges, alongside minimalist typography, and a naturally inspired colour palette with clean modular underlying grids to bring it all together.

We embraced the idea of a narrative wedded to still life photography to help tell the story of the vineyards ‘Unique Aspect’, their ‘Hand Nurtured’ approach, and the ‘Well Grounded’ soils of the region which yield wines with ‘Distinct Notes’ of character. These were then supported with grainy black and white reportage photography of everyday life at the vineyard.

The new identity was carried through to tactile company stationery, engaging cellar door posters and a simple but elegant e-commerce web site. To help complete the picture, a brand book was developed with earthy uncoated card stock and treatments like the white printed short cut cover and stitched spine that conveyed the greater brand story and provided a tactile reflection of the brand for customers at the cellar door and their wine club members.