Wine has been made and consumed since ancient times, but it still stupefies the casual consumer.
Unknown Estate aims to change that, and studio Look At That played with themes of mystery executed in a casual style to engage and encourage wine drinkers to be more adventurous as they learn more.
“Unknown Estate’s mission is to make wine less of an unknown. Removing the jargon, intimidation & snobbery.
Unknown Estate has taken on one of the most traditional categories and is challenging the way it’s perceived. The flavour descriptor was a good place to start. Adjective-filled descriptors are commonplace on the back of wine bottles. Terms like elegant wine, impressive structure and mouth-filling fruit flavours. Unknown Estate presents taste using a diagram that illustrates 3-4 key flavours and how they mix and interact, highlighting big notes as well as subtle finishes.
Customers have developed interesting ways to identify good wine from the bad. Whether that be buying based on the number of shiny gold awards, always purchasing the same bottle through fear of experimentation or just picking a ‘cool’ label. Unknown Estate hopes that with the added knowledge gained from diagrammatic flavour descriptors, shoppers will be adventurous and experimental in their choice of wine.
Unknown Estate values the art on the label just as much as the art in the bottle. Monograms, hillsides, estate buildings and script typography are the visual norms of the wine category. Unknown Estate’s labels explore the unknown. They’re rendered in an inaccurate and wonky illustration style to contrast the status quo. Minimal sans serif typography, black and white printing and zero embellishments. An honest, playful, down to earth wine.”
