B Side History & Creative Brief (in progress)

History:

Don & Sons started in 1895 with Samuele Sebastiani, an Italian immigrant to America who eventually earned enough money to buy land and started his own winery. As Samuele's family grew, so did the company. 3 generations down the line, Don & Sons is now run by Don Sebastiani, Samuele's grandson, and his own sons Donny and August. Don & Sons has expanded and experimented with various varietals and concepts for creating and marketing wines.

The Don & Sons Winemaking Process

At Don Sebastiani & Sons, we strive to produce quality wine at an approachable price, regardless of the outcome of a particular growing season. Our winemaker Greg Kitchens works to create great wines that our customers identify as a reliable purchase. Kitchens has developed a distinctive character for each one of our brands. Each wine's individual profile evolves with changes in established vineyard relationships, available fruit and flavor trends in the industry. Our winemaking approach at Don Sebastiani & Sons is to consistently create noteworthy wines in a style which is recognizably our own.

About the wine:

The 2007 vintage of our B Side Cabernet Sauvignon shows excellent fruit and balance without sacrificing tannin, backbone, and potential for aging. A blend of two different Napa benchland vineyards, this dark, garnet red Cabernet opens with wild strawberry and boysenberry aromas, a touch of caramelized oak, bittersweet chocolate, and hints of charcoal from the rich and multifaceted Napa Valley soils. It is textbook Napa Cab on the palate, with an essence of black current and dark red raspberry contrasting with firm structure and dusty tannins on the finish. Aged for over two years on French oak, this wine has both the fruit necessary for immediate enjoyment, and the balance and depth to improve with age.

B Side Cabernet Sauvignon tells the story of the flip-side of Napa Valley. Nestled in rural areas and rolling hills along the eastern edge of the Valley, these vineyards are just a few miles from the glamorous, high-priced wineries featured along Highway 29. The eastern side of Napa Valley includes areas such as Pope Valley, Chiles Valley, Wooden Valley, Stags Leap District and lower Calistoga. Vines in these areas are grown in thin volcanic soils, which yield smaller, more concentrated fruit, producing Bordeaux-style Cabernet Sauvignons with classic berry and cassis flavors.

Creative Objectives:

B Side Wine is marketed as coming from the "B Side" of Napa Valley, a departure from the "grandiose chateaux of Highway 29." The labeling is simple, having a photo of tape from a cassette in a crumpled pile on the front. The brand makes many references to music, as a B Side is usually the reverse of a cassette or record, or an alternative to the original. This wine is described as "rare and unconventional," a gem that lucky passers-by may stumble upon.

In my re-design of this product, I will strive to push the music aspect further. The packaging is going to refer to the days of vinyl records, which are (these days) considered rare and unconventional, a specialty. The bottle itself will mimic the texture of a vinyl record while the label on the front of the bottle will be circular and also resemble the label one would see on the face of a vinyl record. The box will be rectangular with a die-cut circle in front, revealing the label of the bottle inside.