The Lost Vintage

Where there’s smoke,
there’s fire

The effects of the Australian Bushfire Crisis were felt far beyond immediately affected areas. With smoke bellowing around hundreds of Australian wineries for weeks thereafter, grapes were irreparably damaged through what’s called “smoke taint” – a phenomenon which gives them a peaty, bitter, or sour flavour.

In the best case scenario, these smoke tainted grapes would be used for cask wine, but in most scenarios they were disposed of, causing a massive loss in crops and profit for affected wineries.

Create for good

Instead of letting the grapes go to waste, we worked closely with MIRA Wines to create The Lost Vintage: a rosé made from smoke-tainted grapes found in their Hunter Valley vineyard.

20% of all proceeds go back to Pokolbin RFS, with the remainder going back to MIRA Wines, helping them replenish their crops for next year’s vintage.

Inspired by hand-marked cleanskin bottles, The Lost Vintage branding is rough around the edges, imperfectly perfect, and has a distinct hand-crafted quality – much like the wine inside, each varietal having its own label which reflects the flavour and profile of the wine.

Building The Lost Vintage brand from scratch, Taylor and I were responsible for finding a partner for the idea, creating The Lost Vintage brand and all related branding materials such as social and web, the PR launch and direct marketing campaign to promote the brand and initiative.