Coyote Highlands Wine & Estates is a private vineyard in the rolling hills of San Martin, California, producing small-batch wines rooted in craft and experimentation. As the vineyard prepared to introduce its vintages to a broader audience, the team partnered with Walla to develop a brand identity and packaging system that could honor traditional winemaking while expressing the vineyard’s bold, independent spirit.

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Wine packaging often relies on a narrow set of visual conventions: ornate crests, muted palettes, and traditional label layouts that signal heritage but rarely create distinction on the shelf. For emerging vineyards, this creates a difficult tension. The brand must communicate credibility and craftsmanship while also capturing attention in a crowded retail environment.

Coyote Highlands wanted to honor the legacy of winemaking while presenting a more expressive identity—one that reflected the vineyard’s small-batch philosophy and independent spirit. The challenge was to develop a wine brand identity and packaging design system that felt rooted in tradition but visually distinct from the predictable aesthetics dominating the category.

The final system needed to work across multiple varietals and future vintages while maintaining a cohesive presence across labels, capsules, and supporting brand materials.

Walla began by studying the visual language of traditional wine labels, identifying the elements that signal authenticity and heritage to wine buyers. From there, we reinterpreted those conventions through a contemporary lens, creating a packaging design system that felt both familiar and refreshingly unexpected.

Vintage-style typography provided the structural backbone of the identity, grounding the brand in classic wine tradition. These elements were then paired with modern layout structures and a confident color palette designed to break from the subdued tones often found in wine packaging.

To further reinforce the vineyard’s personality, we developed a series of hand-drawn illustrations inspired by native California wildlife. Coyotes, foxes, and birds became recurring storytelling elements across the label system, bringing wit, character, and narrative depth to the packaging.

The final result is a flexible wine packaging system that balances heritage with individuality, allowing each varietal to feel distinct while maintaining a cohesive and recognizable brand presence.

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