July 1, 2021

Skyside Wines

Skyside was launched as an accessible second label under Newton Vineyard: quietly positioned, quietly performing. But the world around it had changed. A new wave of wine drinkers, led by Millennials and Gen Z, were reshaping the category.

Verbal Identity

Copywriting

Qualitative Research

Competitive Analysis

Audience Insights

Brand Strategy

Junior Strategist / BrandOpus
Client: Möet Hennessy

They were disinterested in exclusivity, tasting notes and prestige. What they craved instead was story, soul, and shared experience. Wine not as a marker of status, but as a companion to life. So how do you make a wine feel both elevated and easygoing, premium yet personal? The answer was to ground Skyside not in the mythology of wine, but in the magic of California, its wild terrains, diverse terroirs, and the sense of freedom that runs through it all.
We reframed Skyside as “Partners in Discovery”, a brand that didn’t just bottle wine, but bottled stories. From coastal road trips to mountain trails, from Tuesday dinners to wedding toasts, Skyside became the wine for life’s adventures, always better when shared.

The strategic foundation was built on extensive category audits, cultural research, and brand territory mapping. The insight: wine no longer lives on a pedestal. It’s being pulled down into the everyday, paired with pizza, picnics, playlists. We identified this shift early and used it to inform everything from tone of voice to pack design to storytelling.

Skyside would be generous, gregarious, curious. A connector, not a collector’s item. Its tone would balance quiet confidence with Californian warmth. And its identity would reflect the expansive spirit of the land, sophisticated yet rooted.

Design brought this to life with softened palettes, elegant yet modern typography, and visual storytelling that felt lived-in, not lacquered. Off-pack touchpoints like website banners and seasonal activations extended the brand’s energy across channels and contexts.

As a result Skyside was reimagined as a modern Californian wine, one that invites people in, sparks curiosity, and lives not on a pedestal, but in the moments we treasure most.