Following CF Napa Brand Design’s redesign of the multi-tiered portfolio of wines, Clos du Val returned to CF Napa to develop a new wine club exclusive offering – Bernard’s Cuvée. The release of this limited-edition wine celebrates Clos du Val’s 50th anniversary and the packaging design needed to highlight this milestone and honor the wine’s namesake Bernard Portet – Clos du Val’s first winemaker. Bernard selected his favorite blocks from Clos du Val’s Hirondelle Estate in Napa’s Stags Leap District AVA, making this red wine blend a truly one-of-a-kind offering that honors the winery’s past and 50 years of history while looking forward into the future.

CF Napa Brand Design’s scrapbook-like solution utilizes three separate paper labels, meticulously hand-applied over one another to create a nostalgic collage of historical documents and black and white photographs honoring Bernard. One label includes an excerpt from an April 1981 interview with Bernard. The text of the article is marked up to further emphasize key messages from the interview with Alexis Bespaloff. The photographs show Bernard sampling his wine in the barrel room and in the iconic 1970s Dodge Charger that he infamously drove up and down the then-rural Napa Valley. The finishing touches to the wine packaging were Bernard’s signature, a limited edition bottle number – only 3,500 bottles were produced – and a black wax dot cork topper with an embossed “B” emblem. The final result is a memorable package design for the Bordeaux-style red wine blend that captures the unique spirit of Bernard Portet and the early days of what would become Clos du Val’s impressive legacy in Napa Valley.

From the winey: “Our 50th anniversary Bernard’s Cuvée celebrates the beginning of Clos du Val and the character and vision of our first winemaker, Bernard Portet, who chose the land and crafted our first vintage.”