Just like our two pioneering wine growers, we decided to work with what the weather gives you.

We embraced the gales, hale storms and storm surges. Whatever the Hanseatic climate could throw at us – and created Brute, a wine crafted by the elements.

A wine that throws all rules and traditions overboard and embraces its volatile environment instead of fearing it.

The brutal Hamburg weather shapes the wine. So we used it to shape the brand.

To fully embody the creative idea of ‘Crafted by the Elements‘ we encouraged the client to store the empty bottles out in the vines throughout the growing season. Allowing the Hanseatic elements to shape the brutal character of both wine and bottle.

Then, to create a fully weather-powered brand experience, we built an online algorithm that captures the Hamburg weather and generates an evolving expression which reflects the conditions in real-time. The online tool enables the client to generate an infinite palette of relevant brand touchpoints at the click of a button, such as social media and urban advertising.

The algorithm captures data throughout the growing season, and generates packaging which expresses the brutal conditions that craft each vintage. So as the wine evolves with the climate, so does the brand.

Brute is pushing boundaries for wine from northern Germany by disrupting the entrenched industry attitude of good weather equals good wine.

Being perceived as undrinkable and unsalable at the same time, the unique Brute experience is changing the consumer's perception on crafted wine from the Hamburg region.

As a local underdog brand—attributes highly prized in socially-progressive Hamburg—Brute has been widely celebrated by the Northern wine community.

Pre-order inquiries for the limited 2017 vintage have caused the growers to increase their production capabilities for 2018.

Spaces for the annual planting event in April 2018 sold out almost instantly.

Stormy, rainy, unpredictable. Hamburg must be the last region on earth to produce wine.

Enter Leon Zijlstra and Jörn Andresen. Two wine growers with the necessary expertise and sheer madness to dare to cultivate a wine in such a wet, wild and windy place.

But, in the highly competitive, pretentious and conservative German wine market, where tradition and location drive purchase, how do you market a wine grown in a region as inhospitable and unconventional as Hamburg?

Challenge: Create a brand, story and packaging to launch Hamburgs first ever commercial vineyard to the market.