Subscriber login Close [x]
remember me
You are not logged in.

AI delivers individual bottle labels for new Maison Wessman wine

Published:  24 June, 2024

Bergerac producer Maison Wessman defines itself as ‘reinventing tradition’, and this innovative winemaker has embraced AI-enhanced graphics which deliver an individual label for each bottle of its Imprévu wine.

The newly launched wine, which Harpers had a preview of late last week at the company’s Les Verdots cellar, has been crafted by winemaker Lise Sadiral as a fresh, crunchy red, with the Cabernet Sauvignon element of this Cabernet/Merlot/Malbec blend vinified as a rosé.

As such it is part of a growing movement towards ‘smashable’ unoaked and easy-drinking reds that can sit comfortably in the fridge door. The estate’s owner, Icelandic pharmaceutical billionaire Róbert Wessman, gave the green light to do something quite different with the label.

The upshot, pictured, is possibly a first in the wine world, with each bottle very clearly being part of the same design family, but with each also having its own unique premutation in terms of the graphics on the label.

Bottled just two weeks ago, Imprévu, which means ‘unexpected’ in French, is tank fermented at a cool temperature to help boost its crisp characteristics, with the resulting wine revealing bright fruit and lifting acidity, sitting well with current drinking trends.

Harpers had been invited to the estate to join a blending session presided over by former Best Sommelier of the World, Andreas Larsson, and Julien Viaud, of Michel Rolland & Associés, to decide the second release of La Folie. This wine is to be formed of a blend of wines from Bergerac, Provence, Italy and Spain, with the possible inclusion of south-west French varieties from Chile and Argentina also being considered for a future iteration.

Drawing a parellel between the worlds of food and wine, Wessman said: “We are going to blend the madness that is La Folie… there is food blending, fusion, so this excitement we want to build into the wine today.”

The estate has additionally been planting old, forgotten French and local varieties as part of its sustainability programme, partly with a view to finding cultivars that will help mitigate the effects of climate change, adding further innovation to the offer at Maison Wessman.

Harpers will be running a fuller report on Maison Wessman in the near future.



Keywords: