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PACKAGING Bleeding-Edge Packaging Tests the Market Newly public winery, Truett Hurst, vies for attention with assertive design choices By Jane Firstenfeld A diagram depicts Paper Boy's assembly. Highlights • efore going public in 2013, Truett B Hurst Winery adopted a unique marketing plan that relies on eye-catching packages sourced globally. • he company's diverse, innovative packT ages stress purchasing occasions rather than a brand name, AVA or terroir. • n addition to the wrapped, square and I paper bottles now on retail shelves, CEO Phil Hurst promises that more surprise packaging is in the works. 102 W in es & V i ne s january 20 14 T here's no shortage of drama at Truett Hurst Winery. The sixyear-old company went public this summer; one director (entrepreneur William Hambrecht) stepped down, and net sales increased by about 5%, according to its first-quarter financial statement issued June 26, 2013. On top of this, the Healdsburg, Calif.-based winery has launched three radically different packages since October 2012. At first glance, the innovative packaging does not do much to support a brand that is not a household name among consumers. But the people involved stalwartly believe they are breaking a whole new path for wine marketing. Beyond cutting-edge, this is "bleedingedge packaging technology," winery CEO Phil Hurst said in late October 2013. "Our company has a long history of creating lots of brands," said Hurst, who previously worked at Marin County's Winery Exchange, a specialist in private brands. "We like to create new brands in new categories, when it makes sense." Truett Hurst's top tier of Russian River varietal wines retain traditional packaging. In winemaker Virginia Marie Lambrix's mid-tier VML line (which retails from $22 for a Pinot Noir rosé to $45 for a Blanc de Noirs sparkler), "You can start to see the evolution," Hurst said. "They're very elaborate, creative and fun." "We started making and selling wine the traditional way, the same way everybody did," said Jim Kopp, the national sales and marketing director who previously worked with Kendall-Jackson. "Everyone talks about the dirt, but no one walks into a wine shop asking for a wine from the Russian River Green Valley on a west-facing slope," Kopp pointed out. "We started talking about establishing a point of difference. No one was really addressing the needs of the consumers to make it easy for them to get what they wanted." The question, Kopp said, then became "What do they want the wine for?" Wrapping it for the occasion Brainstorming among the Truett Hurst (TH) "family," including Lambrix and her husband, designer Kevin Shaw, culminated with the 2012 launch of the Evocative Wrapped Wines, a half-dozen different brands of California-sourced wines targeting specific wine-drinking occasions: barbecue, for instance, or fish. "Anniversary" is a lush, juicy Pinot Noir. "Curious Beasts," a best-seller, is "red wine for red meat," according to Kopp. Safeway supermarkets snapped up the concept; after a second round debuted in 2013, the line currently includes 15 individual SKUs at price points from $12 to $15, according to Kopp. Even on a crowded California supermarket shelf, the wraps are eye-catchers. "No one was really addressing the needs of the consumers to make it easy for them to get what they wanted." Jim Kopp, Truett Hurst national sales and marketing director Each wrap is a brand of its own: Nary a trace of Truett Hurst can be found on the outer paper wrapper or the die-cut front and back labels. Many consumers may never even see the bottle itself. The tear- and waterresistant wrapper can be refrigerated or iced without deterioration. "It will not change in an ice bucket," Hurst asserted. The wraps are adorned with individual art commissioned by Shaw and his studio Stranger and Stranger, which maintains studios in New York, N.Y., and London,