The Radgonske Gorice Winery is trying to expand into global markets.

Instead of relying on conventional advertising, Agency created a completely new product in order to attract the attention of global media and gain new distributors. After the launch, which led to over 400 free media mentions globally, and a B2B tasting event at The Savoy London, Radgonske Gorice landed new distributors in China, Japan, USA and Switzerland.

The task was to facilitate the winery’s efforts to make its way to the global market outside Slovenia, which it had not managed to achieve before despite its 170-year-old tradition.

We intervened in the production process left dormant for hundreds of years to create a new, globally unique production method and to capture the attention of the media and distributors.

According to Professor Ann C. Noble from the University of California, even minimal exposure of sparkling wine to light can change its aroma for the worse. We decided to go to the extreme and never to allow light to touch the wine, from harvest to tasting. With that in mind, we changed the wine’s name to UNTOUCHED BY LIGHT and sealed it inside rectangular black foil that made the bottle barely visible, embodying the production process in complete darkness. We recommend the tasting in the dark experience as well.

With the budget limitations in mind, any traditional type of advertising expected to have a desired global reach was not an option. As a result, we created a new product media would talk about and the distributors would take notice.

We acted on an insight based on relevant scientific studies to make a twist in the production process and to apply a thoughtful approach to design.

Now the night vision goggles are used for night harvest, bottle rotation and packing. The wine is left to age for three years in a completely lightproof Gornja Radgona natural cave in Slovenia.

Packaging design underscores the unique quality of the product. For that reason, we steered clear from category conventions, typical graphical language and decorations. With simple, informative design and distinctive graphics, we aimed at suggesting this is something else. The bottle is made of 99.8% black glass and sealed inside black foil that provides a dark and safe space for the product and increases its on-shelf visibility. The ripple foil with its baroque structure also functions as a distinctive and exuberant decoration.

We presented the wine to distributors in a darkroom that we built in the basement of The Savoy Hotel in London.

• Our innovation was widely reported in the media all the way from the US to China. There were 437 media mentions globally including in The Wine Spectator, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Independent, Decanter, Der Spiegel, Forbes and Wine China.

„Are You Afraid of the Dark?“ – Wine Spectator

An exciting experiment. – Juliane Fischer, Kurier

Quite a story. – Caroline Gilby MW, Decanter

The most unusual wine I tasted this year. The wine was amazing. – Dave McIntyre, Washington Post

Unusual, innovative wine. – Igor Serdyuk, Forbes

It is the ageing process that makes this wine unique. – Wine China

• Radgonske gorice gained new distributors in USA, China, Japan and Switzerland.