Château Ksara’s 159-year history in winemaking has been told in many languages around the world. Yet, we preferred to tell its many stories through the creation of a new language: the “Language of Wine,” a complete and exhaustive visual language built around letters, numbers, and collages created from all the elements that make up the world of Château Ksara. The isometric illustrations depict the life at night and day revolving around three iconic edifices of the land (the Château, the Observatory, and the church). The shifting perspectives of the illustrations on the bottle label design takes the consumer from daily to nightly rituals at the winery’s estate, and specifically around the three iconic edifices of the land. Through the specialized labels, Château Ksara was introducing its full story, and consumers were exposed to the brand’s heritage, all while unraveling the story of Château Ksara.

We identified elements that are intimately linked to the winery’s visual universe and utilized the hatching illustration technique and a fable-esque storytelling approach to bring the Language of Wine to life. Elements such as the Roman influence, the Jesuit heritage, the terroir, the climate, the fauna and flora, the inhabitants of the Bekaa Valley, the winemaking process, and the passage of time came to life. The isometric illustrations depict the life during night and day, revolving around three iconic edifices of the land: the Château, the Observatory, and the church, all three of which have bottles named after them. These bottles were offered as a one-off production of limited edition labels in specialized wine shops, and depleted in less than 2 weeks. The illustrations provided a different perspective of the story directly through the rituals of serving wine, providing a different experience to consumers when interacting with the bottle.

Château Ksara had an identity crisis and an untold story. The new illustrations created a set of words and images that were rightfully representative of Château Ksara’s heritage, which were ultimately used on all of the brand’s collaterals. Beyond its new identity, Château Ksara was able to create an innovative form of communication within the wine community: a complete and exhaustive visual language built around the Language of Wine. Once a chaotic and inconsistent brand identity, the new brand identity reinforces and re-instates its status as national icon to all major stakeholders.

Through collateral/stationary/packaging or the illustrations on their own, Château Ksara is becoming an attractive player in the ever more competitive local and international wine market.