Linz agency upart wins with outstanding design
To celebrate its 20th anniversary (2023), the Portuguese winegrowers’ group has created two exceptional wines: a red wine and a tawny port. These special cuvées, each blended from the best barrels of the five wineries, deserved a special presentation. The Linz-based creative agency upart won the tender. Their design for the labels and packaging of the valuable wines has now been honoured with the Austrian State Prize for ‘Smart Packaging 2024’.
Designing a label for a winery is challenging because it’s not just about aesthetics, but above all about branding and a unique position in a large and competitive market. But it is even more challenging to design a label and packaging for a product from five wineries when each of the winemakers has a strong personality and brand.
For the „20 Years Douro Boys Editions“ the Linz-based design agency upart mastered this challenge brilliantly. This is shown not only by the economic result: 1350 magnums of the red wine cuvée and 650 bottles of the exclusive tawny were sold all over the world within just 90 minutes during the first presentation of the wines in April 2023.
The second major coup came in October 2024: the design of the special wines was honoured with the Austrian State Prize!
Innovative design meets tradition
The award-winning design is characterised by a unique label that encircles the bottle. Five stripes, each representing one of the wineries, characterise the appearance of the front. The recesses between the stripes symbolise the Douro River and underline the deep connection between the winegrowers and their region.
‘The biggest challenge was to unite five winemaker personalities on one label without neglecting the individuality of each of them,’ explains Daniel Frixeder, Managing Director of upart. ‘The result is a design that not only stands out visually, but also tells the story and the joint work of the Douro Boys for their region.’
Valuable design for two limited editions
Paper labels (Marzek Druck, Austria) were applied to a total of 1350 magnum bottles for the Anniversary Cuvée 2021 red wine. The price of this wine is currently – if available – between 650 and 800 euros per magnum.
For the exceptional Anniversary Very Old Tawny Port (950 bottles), the label was screen-printed directly onto the bottles. The price of this rarity, which was composed from barrel-aged tawnies dating back to the 19th century, is between 700 and 800 euros per bottle (0.75 litre).
The wooden crates created for the red wine cuvée and the Tawny are also unusual and beautifully reflect the meandering course of the Douro.
About the ‘Smart Packaging’ national award
The ‘Smart Packaging’ State Prize is awarded every two years by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. It honours the most innovative and sustainable packaging solutions in Austria. This is the oldest state prize awarded by the BMAW; this year it was awarded for the 61st time.
The DOURO BOYS:
The Douro Boys were created in 2003 from the merger of the Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Crasto, Niepoort, Quinta Vale D. Maria and Quinta Vale Meão wineries. The next generation has recently taken the helm of the association.
More informations: https://www.douroboys.com/ or https://wine-partners.at/news/douro-boys-new-generation
Infos zu den Arbeiten der Agentur upart: https://www.upart.at/