Grounded
For Remarkable State Wines' COVID "Recovery Project", Gill painted the label artwork with the wine itself and with soil from the vineyards. The wines took their name, Grounded, from the artwork.
Remarkable State started its Recovery Project to highlight suppliers and friends who had helped it, making small batch wines to support people doing it tough during COVID. The owner asked Gill, a friend whose own year had been turned upside down, to make artwork for a label.
Asked whether she could use paints made in South Australia, Gill paused and said she would use the wine as the paint. In her words, "What resulted was a truly unique label - the grid pattern to reference the city street grid of Adelaide."
She then challenged the winemaker to bring her soil from the vineyards, reasoning that if the wine came from this soil, so too should the label. She boiled wine down to deepen the colour and blended some with white wine to lighten it. The wine took so long to dry on canvas that she turned the heat up in her home studio until the house became, in the winery's words, a giant sauna.
There were two artworks. Grounded Barossa used Barossa Shiraz and Mataro wine with soil from a 70-year-old vineyard; Grounded McLaren Vale used Shiraz and Grenache with soil from a young McLaren Vale Shiraz vineyard. Remarkable State's designer Todd Engelsma turned the artwork into the label.
The story2
In Gill's words
When the client, Remarkable State Wines, approached me to work on their special wine production, I was absolutely thrilled to consider the power of the label.
I was inspired by their devotion to South Australia and when asked if I could use paints made in the state I paused and responded with the unexpected response that I would use their WINE as the paint! What resulted was a truly unique label - the grid pattern to reference the city street grid of Adelaide.
The winery's story
Remarkable State's Recovery Project highlighted the suppliers and friends who had helped the winery through COVID. The winery wrote of Gill as a friend and artist who "had seen her own year thrown upside down", and of her asking for soil from the vineyards because "If the wine came from this soil, so too should the label."
The process4
Painting with wine and soil
Wine boiled down to deepen colour; blended with white wine to lighten; vineyard soil worked into the paint. Drying on canvas took a couple of weeks, solved by heating the home studio.
Grounded Barossa artwork
Barossa Shiraz and Mataro wine with soil from a 70-year-old vineyard.
Grounded McLaren Vale artwork
Shiraz and Grenache wine with soil from a young McLaren Vale Shiraz vineyard.
Label design
Remarkable State designer Todd Engelsma turned the artwork into the wine label.
Videos8
Creating Art with Wine for a Wine Label, Part 1, The Idea
Creating Art with Wine for a Wine Label, Part 2, The Soil
Creating Art with Wine for a Wine Label, Part 3, The Reveal
Creating Art with Wine for a Wine Label, Part 4, The Label Reveal
Barrel to Bottle in 8 Weeks: Part 1
Barrel to Bottle in 8 Weeks: Part 2
Barrel to Bottle in 8 Weeks: Part 7
Art Commission Painting with Wine
The wine3
Grounded Shiraz Mataro 2018Barossa Valley. One barrel of Shiraz and one of Mataro, blended as "a wine of renewal", made by Rolf Binder from old vine vineyards.carwyncellars.com.au
Grounded Shiraz Grenache 2019McLaren Vale. One barrel each, showing "the power and vibrancy of Shiraz, along with the brightness and spice of Grenache", made at Haselgrove Wines.carwyncellars.com.au
Grounded Old Vine Shiraz 2018Images2
People4
Dr Gill Hicks AM MBEArtist: painted Grounded with wine and vineyard soil
Todd EngelsmaRemarkable State designer who turned the artwork into the label
Rolf BinderWinemaker, Grounded Shiraz Mataro 2018 (Barossa)
Haselgrove Wines, McLaren ValeWinery: made the Grounded Shiraz Grenache 2019