Churchill's Port Celebrates 50th Harvest with Brand Reboot

When Churchill's was founded by Johnny Graham in 1981, when he was just 29 years old, no one had started a port company in over 50 years. Fast forward forty years and it is now the last remaining independent British port house.

Simplicity, beauty and minimalism

Churchill's is now being handed over to the next generation. “Two words at the heart of our brand refresh are ‘Beauty’ and ‘Minimalism,’” says Johnny’s daughter, Zoe Graham. “We wanted to make the image of our ports match the truth of the wine.” Zoe’s husband Ben Himowitz agrees: “The new Churchill’s visual identity is all about simplicity. We believe new doesn’t have to be complicated, and you can honour the past without living in it.”

Not just words but deeds

Sustainability was also key in the re-branding. The new packaging uses 100% recyclable capsules as well as sustainable FSC-certified paper ranges for the labels and packaging, including those made from 15% grape waste and 40% post-consumer recycled fibres. The Douro wines are now in lightweight bottles, representing a 12% reduction in bottle weight across the range that makes up half of Churchill’s total annual volume.

Rebrand

New labels for the port have been designed to express this identity. The Churchill crest has been deconstructed into a more modern style whilst retaining the traditional and symbolic heraldry. A rook motif taken from the granite lagares where the grape must is foot-trodden, represents minimal intervention in winemaking. A shell, the traditional symbol of pilgrimage, is derived from the Graham family crest which they first adopted when they settled in Portugal in 1808. Churchill’s Douro wines have also been renamed Grafite, with reference to the schist and granite Douro soils, and the mineral character of the wines themselves.

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