Boutinot Wines: Rioja branding by Biles Hendry

UK wine importer and producer Boutinot has launched a new brand identity and packaging for its trio of riojas, called Vega del Rayo, with design by Biles Hendry. The agency was tasked with taking Boutinot’s contemporary-style rioja – made with grapes from the Carlos Serres vineyard in Haro – and giving it a fresh, ownable look to capture the provenance of the region, yet stand out from a busy sea of wines on shelf.

The open landscape of the Rioja region is well known for its changeable climate and thunderstorms. The team at Biles Hendry discovered that these regular lightning strikes discharge nitrogen into the soil, thus fertilising it. This connection between the weather and the wine generated the name Vega del Rayo (which translates roughly as 'open plains and lightning strikes') and the ‘double take’ design idea, depicting both the lightning fork and the vine root.

The resulting label design reflects the quality of the product and signals a break from the traditional Rioja wine language of its direct competition.