Ackley Beverage Group
Landlines Estates Brand Platform, Packaging & Collateral
The Challenge
We partnered with Ackley Beverage Group to develop a new, ultra-premium Oregon wine brand. Landlines Estates features Pinot Noir (and a Chardonnay), sourced from a biodynamic vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in the Willamette Valley. The focus from the beginning was to create a provocative and story-driven brand that would celebrate their unique approach to farming and winemaking and appeal to savvy consumers.
The Outcome
Beginning with the wine names, we drew inspiration from wayfinding, navigation, and astronomy to evoke the idea of the unseen connections between people, land, and the wine they produce together. For the labels and packaging, we looked for a balance between boldness and artful simplicity, seeking to invite the consumer to delve deeper into the story behind each product. The results are pretty striking (if we do say so ourselves).
The Landlines brand identity is composed of dramatic, blocktype letterforms, with organic whirls that evoke topography and vineyard rows.
The labels feature bold geometric shapes and die cuts, giving them a modern feel with a slightly mystical vibe.
Brand Story
Landlines Estates crafts small, distinct lots of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We source our fruit exclusively from Tidalstar Vineyard, a distinguished 30-acre organically and biodynamically farmed vineyard in Oregon’s Yamhill-Carlton AVA. Its rich, red-tinged soil was formed by tectonic plates crashing together, turning ancient seabeds into a fertile hillside that was further enriched by sediment from massive ice age floods. Our wines reflect a deep respect for this land and an intimate understanding of the forces that shape it.
The more closely you look at the world, the more profound it becomes. A cluster of grapes is the product of soil, sun, wind and water, but the character of those grapes is also the outcome of geologic events, complex natural processes and elemental reactions. These forces exist in tension with each other, and as winemakers, it’s our job to navigate this delicate interplay. Seeing the unseen connections and making choices to coax the fullest and truest expression of the land from those grapes.
Enabling these grapes to reach their full potential is a delicate—and daily—balance of nurture and restraint. We barrel and ferment each lot separately, with as little intervention as possible, before intentionally teasing apart their different characteristics in the blending process. Only by being so highly attuned to the nuances of each block, each clone and each vintage, are we able to create world-class wines that present entirely unique expressions of terroir, even from a single variety, sourced from a single small vineyard.