For the 2023 holiday season, we took an innovative approach for our client gift. We partnered with Domenico Winery, a local winery in Lodi, California, to produce our own cabernet sauvignon. A wine bottle is the perfect canvas to present our graphic design talent, so we decided to design and print one-of-a-kind labels for every bottle, resulting in artisanal, personal, and unforgettable keepsakes. Despite our best efforts, the holidays always sneak up on us, even after ten years in business. We manage to find a way to send our clients a memorable, packaging-centric holiday gift, but with so many projects happening at once, the holiday gift becomes a project in itself. How could we simplify the process while both showcasing our packaging prowess and sending a unique ‘thank you’? We looked inward to one of our core principles: sustainability. Eco-friendly packaging is more than just the latest sustainable material; it can also be about facing the challenge with what you’ve already got. That includes the world-class wineries in our backyard. After developing our own wine with Domenico, we found a collection of fine art prints at our local used bookstore. We repurposed the prints and combined them with specialized printing techniques, resulting in one-of-a-kind wine labels celebrating Zenpack’s first ever cabernet sauvignon. Producing quality wine can be quite challenging; fortunately, the experts at Domenico Winery did the hard work and included us in the fun parts. We tasted previous Domenico wines to determine the type we’d create, we visited the vineyards to learn more about the grapes, and we even helped bottle the wine, a cabernet sauvignon with robust flavor and tannins. For our part, we focused on the packaging. We have previous experience designing beverage and wine labels, but we wanted to try something special for our clients. Rather than conventional printing, we repurposed pages from vintage art books. We were drawn to the prints found in “XX Century, Drawings and Watercolors,” by R. Cogniat, a beautiful but worn volume discovered at our local bookstore. The pages feature artwork on naturally aged semi-coated paper—a look that’s impossible to replicate with new materials. While R. Cogniat’s collection has dozens of prints, we needed more copies of the book to label roughly 100 bottles. The book was originally published in 1966, but long since out of print. We knew that any copies we could track down would vary significantly in condition—the pages needed to be strong enough to handle fresh printing. Before we could even print though, we would need to choose the best prints based on content and condition, and then carefully extract them from their bindings. Fortunately, “XX Century, Drawings and Watercolors” was one of R. Cogniat’s most popular books. We were able to locate several copies online, and a few extra for testing the paper strength. We carefully separated each delicate page from the binding to preserve integrity. We juxtaposed the serene watercolors and line drawings with a kaleidoscope of fonts— serifed, sans serifed, distressed, bubbled, modern, italicized, hand-drawn—stacked in a collage announcing the Zenpack x Domenico Winery collaboration. To accentuate each label’s design, we used UV printing in single colors; black or white, depending on the tone. The labels were then die-cut into an oversized shape to extend beyond the shoulder of the bottle to crease and gather around the neck. This technique reinforced our core concept: each bottle is truly unique. Every label was hand-applied to ensure ideal placement. Zenpack clients received an uncommon gift to enjoy immediately or save for a special occasion. In addition to our happy clients, this first collaboration was recently shortlisted in the 2025 Pentawards, a packaging design awards platform known for their extremely competitive food & beverage categories. We’re already looking forward to the next product collaboration—any opportunity to share our best packaging work.
Zenpack x Domenico Winery
Vintage art for Zenpack’s 2023 vintage
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