German brand to release wine inspired by weather maps

German wine brand Brute has teamed up with brand consultancy firm Landor and creative director Patrik Hübner, to use real-time weather data from its vineyard to create an image of a 3D-particle-weather simulation on its labels.

Describing itself as a “data-driven wine brand”, Brute has adopted the tagline “crafted by the elements”.

The limited edition wine is produced in an organic vineyard 30 minutes outside of Hamburg by winemakers Leon Zijlstra and Jörn Andresen, who share 30 years’ experience in the field.

Describing the inspiration behind the project, Hübner said that he was approached by Landor to “use the very elements of nature as the driving force to develop a new and innovative brand of wine grown in the brutal climate of Hamburg”.

Writing on his website, he added: “I was also intrigued by the background of a brand that was developed “against all odds”: Wine does require lots of sun and a good climate.

“Growing wine in Hamburg seemed like an odd, almost daring choice and required a fresh story to get people to abandon their expectations of what a “good wine” should be like. So the disadvantage of the rough climate became the defining element of the story. A story of the brutal Hanseatic elements and the people who grow this wine against all odds.

“And the story of a wine that is branded by its defining ingredients of wind, rain, sun and… an algorithm”.

Hübner has developed a system that generates simulations of the core weather elements using custom design software. Each vintage of the wine will be wrapped in paper which visually depicts the weather endured by the vineyard over the year.

Hübner’s system can be viewed online in 3D and has the option to be animated. Designers can subsequently take high-quality stills for use on packaging.

The colour scheme of the design changes according to whether the year has been hot or cold, while the size and shape of the dots and line are altered depending on the level or wind, rain and sun. The online animation can be viewed here. 

Brute planted its vines in June this year and will produce white wines, including Riesel, which according to Wine Grapes, is a Swiss hybrid variety developed by crossing Cabernet Sauvignon with “an undisclosed disease-resistant partner”. The variety is early budding with good resistance to frost and mildew, however it is prone to botrytis bunch rot. It is mostly grown in the Netherlands and is described as being “not unlike Riesling” in that it produces a wine with floral and white fruit characteristics, but with less acidity and complexity than the former.

The brand’s unusual design and marketing is also depicted in a series of promotional posters which read: ‘Some grapes are nurtured, ours are tortured’, ‘It took guts to make our wine, takes even more to drink it’, and ‘kisses your tastebuds, then kicks you in the teeth’.