Wine – a category classically characterised by heritage, exclusivity and insider expertise – is changing as younger generations connect with the drink. While certain topics have become more expected in brand storytelling (e.g. environmental & social impact), increased importance is also being placed on connection and flexibility. Here we’ll look at how 3 brands are bringing these latter themes to life through design, language and brand architecture.

Whiny Baby

 Californian wine brand Whiny Baby loudly interrupts traditional category codes of decorous prestige with bright, irreverent sticker-style graphics with cartoonish elements that suggest nostalgic, internet-age reinterpretations of analogue culture.

This taps into younger generations’ desire to drink wine as part of relaxed social occasions, coding tangible togetherness when paired with pack design elements that turn the product into a conversation starter. The back of each bottle features a space to record where and when it was drunk, as well as memories associated with it, while the inside of the cap features a conversation prompt question (e.g. “what is the highlight of your week?”).

Each bottle also comes with a friendship bracelet around the neck, again nodding to nostalgic IRL interaction and, as Taylor Swift would show us, strong in-group community ties – cemented this time not through insider jargon, but through shared good times.

Indeed, Whiny Baby drastically simplifies the language and selection process of wine by focussing on 3 simple options: Unwind White Blend, Obsessed Red Blend and OMG!?! Fizzy Rosé. Unashamed foregrounding of the products as blends flies in the face of elitist tradition while shifting the focus to the emotional benefit of the product – less about the specifics of ingredients and provenance, more about how it will make you feel in the here and now. Nevertheless, tasting notes using more traditional descriptors (e.g. “ripe red cherry and berry fruit on the nose”) signal that this is still a premium product that can play in the space of sophisticated flavour appreciation.

amie

Positioned as A wine for friends, amie also emphasises sociability in its offering, but with a different aesthetic. Where Whiny Baby uses design cues associated with Gen Z tastes, amie echoes those more typical of a millennial audience. Swirling line-drawn faces and an all-lower-case wordmark adorn an otherwise minimal bottle, coding fluid openness and a quality product that speaks for itself without needing to evoke traditional codes of hierarchy.

Variant names go into a little more detail that Whiny Baby (e.g. amie white: sauvignon blanc) while still simplifying the selection process by offering a streamlined set of options. Placing the brand at the start of the name of each variant codes each option as underpinned by a trusted house style guaranteeing quality and enjoyment of any of these easy options.

Brand architecture also aligns with younger generations’ preference for flexibility in drinking wine, as well as the increasing traction of no and low, by offering amie non-alc: sparking rosé alongside its alcoholic range. It is presented in the same way as the alcoholic variants  – not as less-than or as excessively specialist – coding it simply as an available option within a range of quality choices. While making it easier and more socially frictionless to choose non-alcoholic if that’s always your beverage of choice, this egalitarian structure also plays into the rise of the sober-curious: non-alc this time, sauvignon blanc the next.

Usual

Flexible consumption is at the forefront of the offering from Usual Wines, a brand specialising in small-format servings that make mixing and matching easy as well as allowing individuals to enjoy a single serving without opening a whole bottle – again, tapping into ever more popular narratives of balance.

It does all of this while pushing back against established notions of single serve as lower quality, positioning the product as premium through unusual, eye-catching bottle shape. The tall, narrow form is associated with elegance, and minimal visuals on pack that display the liquid inside – nothing to hide. Meanwhile, website and socials display the product in aspirational settings.

The pack shape also alludes to traditional, full-sized wine bottles in the form of the neck and screw top cap flaring out to shoulders, looking simply as though the rest of the bottle had been magically sliced away. No miniature, lesser versions here – simply the same wine you’d get in a 750ml bottle, in a smaller serving.

Finally, the on-pack descriptions (e.g. “A large glass of rosé, San Luis Obispo County, 2021”) both connect with traditions of attention to detail on provenance, and mirror OOH language – “a large glass of…” following the format used to order a drink at a bar. This positions an at-home moment – whether solo indulgence, or mixing and matching in a group – to sophisticated sociable settings, and positions the drinker as a connoisseur. While the flexible small format is still relatively unusual in the mainstream, the brand plays with traditional codes of premium wine to ensure it is positioned as an appealing alternative to the established.

3 Key Takeaways for Brands:

  1. Emotional connection is becoming increasingly important as wine shifts from exclusivity to inclusivity
    Category codes are broadening from insider expertise to shared experience. Brands like Whiny Baby and amie move away from hierarchy and heritage, instead creating a sense of belonging through emotional signifiers like conversation starters or a focus on friendship. What cues of connection already exist in your brand, and how could you build on them?

  2. Increased flexibility in the category echoes a shift from external authority to personal choice
    Usual’s single-serve elegance, amie’s egalitarian non-alcoholic offering, and Whiny Baby’s mood-led blends show how wine is increasingly being designed for how people actually live and drink today. Flexible formats and emotion focussed design turn what has traditionally been a rigid ritual into something more responsive – fitting individuals’ needs rather than obeying externally-imposed rules. How could your brand adapt to consumers’ flexible needs?

  3. Traditional cues of premiumness still have an important place in wine – but are increasingly remixed with contemporary ones
    The brands we’ve looked at here avoid connotations of compromise by using familiar premium cues – flavour and provenance descriptors, elegant design, and thoughtful language. Which established category codes are most integral to your brand and could be leveraged to reassure on quality while newer codes are adopted?

Sophia Lucena Phillips, Project Director

Wine for a New World: How innovative wine brands are appealing to new generations