Even if you haven’t sipped its wine, you’ll likely recognise Renegade’s bottles. The London urban winery’s labels famously feature photographs of the eyes of their drinkers, and are named for each model.
“I decided to put our customers on the front of the bottles to showcase the diversity of the customers that drink our wine – that it's not just 50-year-old white men in red trousers from south west London,” founder Warwick Smith tells Broadsheet.
“I wanted to create a brand and a visual identity that was different to most traditional wine brands,” he continues. “The reality is that most were developed in the age of the printing press, and now label technology has come a long way, to the point that you can put photographs on bottles. So, I thought, given that the most important people in our entire world are our customers, given that they're the people that essentially pay the bills and we do this all for, why not celebrate that and put customers on our bottles?”
With every vintage of each style of wine, the model-drinker who is on the bottle has their photo taken once again, so that they, in essence, are documented ageing with the wine. “Following the story of people along with the story of the wine is something that I personally really enjoy, and like as part of our storytelling.”
Now that Smith and his team are launching new styles, they’re looking for new models to be the face of them – and it could be you. All you have to do is fill out this form before November 1 and be available for the photoshoot between 6 and 8pm on November 16.
So, what type of people are they looking for? “The honest answer is that I'm just looking for diversity,” Smith says. “We live in a really interesting city and country, and the wines we're making are progressive and interesting, and, you know, we want to showcase all of that. I'm not bothered about names or ages or looks. It's not a beauty contest. I want interesting faces and I want to showcase diversity. So everybody and anybody.”
Overall, though, it’s all about what’s on the inside. “My wish list is just the people who apply who turn out to be interesting, nice people. What I found is that the people put themselves forward for this are inherently in that 0.1 per cent of the population that are bold and willing to do something different and to put themselves out there.”
The deadline to apply to be the name and face of Renegade’s next new batch of wines is November 1. Applicants must be available for the photoshoot on the evening of November 16. renegadelondonwine.com
@renegadeurbanwinery
