Château Picoron

Château Picoron is an Australian-owned organic vineyard in Bordeaux, France.

Home to some of the most prestigious wines in the world, Bordeaux has begun to lose its appeal, especially to new generations of drinkers. Falling victim to their very own self-imposed regulations, Bordeaux risks the extinction of their wine – or are at the very least a threat towards the continued existence of its ancestry.

Château Picoron’s goal is to create a new and inclusive image for Bordeaux by shaking the conformity and snobbery of the region; making wines more fun, while honouring their legacy. Driven by a fundamental belief in bacchanalian diversity, and the agency of each winery to define the evolution and future of this region, Château Picoron sought to kick start something new. To revitalise a region, and to honour its history. To, in their own words, cultivate a “New Bordeaux.”

Château Picoron celebrates Merlot’s past – with the very first Merlot plant laying its roots in Bordeaux soil – as well as its future; exploring six different expressions of this grape across their wine collection. Acting both as an ode to the potential of Merlot, as well as a remembrance of Bordeaux’s history.

The word Merlot first appeared on a wine label in 1784, prior to appearing in an 1824 article describing the grape. Within the article is noted the word’s origin as one hailing from the local blackbirds (Merle), who had developed a taste for the fruit. Whilst researching the etymology of Picoron we discovered that the word derives from the verb Picorer, meaning ‘to peck,’ strengthening the association to birds and epicurism. It was here that we found our inspiration for Picoron’s mascot; a blackbird. Used both as a logo-mark and as the brand’s storyteller, the blackbird chaperons the audience through Picoron’s world of wine, playing games and telling the tales behind the Château.

Working alongside Château Picoron, we learned of Bordeaux’s incredibly restrictive winemaking regulations and constraints – many imposed by law – instituted in an attempt to preserve the specificity of the wine; enforcing the vineyards to adhere to their rules in order to qualify for Bordeaux’s appellation.

Today, however, the greatest constraints are created by nature itself; with climate change inevitably transforming the way the world produces food. The warm summers in the past years have made it difficult to control the sugar level of the grapes, and as you cannot add water to reduce the alcohol in Bordeaux, this is challenging winemakers to find new ways to work with nature.

Finding opportunity and poetry within restriction, we saw these constraints as an exercise in creativity and balance; finding a freedom within the need to adapt and, similarly to the winemakers themselves, crafting something truly unique in the process. Communicating the constraints whilst respecting the craft in a playful and fundamentally approachable way. Offering Château Picoron a platform to initiate the conversations concerning the future of Bordeaux and, on a greater scale, the fate of wine in general.

The Picoron range explores six different expressions of the same grape, with three of the wines conforming to Bordeaux appellation, and the other half examining experimental methods that don’t qualify for the latter. Each of these wines is adorned with an illustration that delineates the winemaking constraints – a feat accomplished through our collaboration with French artist, and lover of birds, Jochen Gerner.

We further advanced the notion of constraint by committing to use one typeface, Bourrasque, in doing so exploring the sans serif’s full potential within our self-imposed restraints. From the mind of French type foundry Bureau Brut, Bourrasque is able to slant 45° in both directions, crafting an effortless flair to the identity, whilst also referencing the brand’s polarised influences from both the past and the future.

Investigating the potential for restrictions within the brand’s copy, the product's names are palindromic – able to be read both backwards and forwards – providing an innate harmony and infinite symmetry to the identity. Again split between their Bordeaux and non-Bordeaux appellations, the traditional range finds their names within French palindromes; such as Le bon Nobel, Ne de l’Eden and Mon Nom. Château Picoron’s more avant-garde wine, however, finds the inspiration to their titles within the English language, opting for Tattarrattat, Madam I’m Adam and No Lemon, No Melon, to further demonstrate the château’s aim to challenge winemaking convention.

All Château Picoron’s wine labels are printed on an extraordinary paper, the debossing of which allows the light to bleed through; giving us the space to scale the brand name at a generous size, whilst allowing each label to be truly unique. This effect, in addition to the black foil, are the same on both ranges, optimising production cost for tooling while offering premium detailing.

As part of the concept we created a mark and a community for Bordeaux winemakers – the OUVIPO (Ouvroir de vins potentielles, roughly translated as ‘workshop of potential wines’) – a gathering for winemakers around the world to connect and share the philosophy of making wines by honouring natural and self-imposed constraints. Truly celebrating the craft, frivolity and joy of winemaking, the community playfully seek out the potential and fresh expressions of new grapes; exploring challenging and sustainable methods of harnessing the fruit and its terroir.