Beringer Eighth Maker

Packaging manufacturer: GPA Luxury (formerly MW Luxury)
Location: United Kingdom
Project Type: Produced
Client: Beringer Vineyards
Product Launch Location: Global
Packaging Contents: Wine

Beringer is California’s oldest continually operating winery. Founded by German immigrants Jacob and Frederick Beringer in 1868, the Napa Valley vineyard can be thanked for a number of firsts in the wine industry: Beringer pioneered using hand-dug caves and cellars, and was the first winery to offer public tours.

Today, Beringer is overseen by Jacob’s great-great-grandson, Mark – the eighth maker in the brand’s 140-year history – and is celebrated around the world for the extraordinary quality of its premium wines. As a nod to winemaker Mark Beringer’s family lineage, the brand is preparing to release Eighth Maker, an exceptional bottle of wine that will come housed in a premium GPA Luxury case.

We were recommended to Beringer’s parent company, Treasury Wine Estates, by our friends at Stranger & Stranger, who worked on the design for this elegant wine case. Working from their fantastic brief we constructed a wooden box with 20mm thick walls and a high-gloss piano black finish.

The box has a hinged lid, held closed with a metal clasp, and retractable handles on either end, making it fantastically easy to carry. It can be laid flat, or set on one end as the recessed handles allow for it to sit completely flat. The piano hinge, clasp and handles all have a gold finish, colour-matched with the Eighth Maker signet (on the pack and bottle) and the Mark Beringer decal signature along the lid. The final touch is etched lettering stained in gunmetal grey ink.

Upon opening the lid a sumptuous interior is revealed. Both the lid and base are lined with black suede, printed with a repeating silk-screened pattern of the Beringer logo. In the base, the bottle of Eighth Maker nestles in a secure EVA fitment, lined with the same black patterned suede; to enable easy removal of the bottle, the fitment contains a black ribbon attachment. In the lid, a smaller fitment holds a leather-bound notebook which contains Mark Beringer’s personal notes on the wine.