When asked to take part in Wollersheim’s latest endeavor, Wollersheim Distillery, we had the opportunity to delve into and extract what makes our client’s spirits so special, and showcase our findings in the naming and designing of the spirits and their bottles.

Inspiration wasn’t difficult to spark. It was right there – in the sloping vineyards of the historic Wisconsin estate, in the gardens that grow alongside its nineteenth-century stone farmhouse and wine cave, and in the passion that the Wollersheim-Coquard family has for locally sourced ingredients and handcrafted spirits.

Before 2009, buried under a previously held law preventing wineries to distill, lay the decades-long distilling dream of the Wollersheim-Coquard family. Now, six years after the law was lifted, Wollersheim Distillery is armed with spirits to sell, and we’re right there with them, letting the world know that this long-awaited dream of the family is now marrying with the distilling history of its property. Historical records, in fact, show sales of brandy from nearly a century and a half ago, which inspired us in creating Wollersheim’s logo of its custom-built pot still and the words: “Established 1876, Reawakened 2015.”

Recognizing the history of the National Historic Site’s distillery, we too saw value in showcasing the story of the property and family through the spirits’ names and bottle designs. We toured the Wollersheim property, seeking out the most distinctive characteristics that differentiate the distillery. Take the Dancehall Absinthe Blanche, for example, whose name and bottle design derive from the property’s historic press house where, over a century ago, families would gather to celebrate their labors with music and dancing. Or look to the Garden Gate Gin, whose bottle features a distinctive element of the gin: the backyard gate to the family’s garden where the gin’s botanicals first grew.

In addition to the historical property, we honored the Wollersheim-Coquard family as a whole, including its own history in distilling and its ethical practices in doing so. Exemplifying this veneration is the naming of the Apple Eau De Vie, whose title alludes to the French-born winemakers of the family, along with their old-world attention allotted to the Wisconsin apples used for the brandy.

Though each bottle tells its spirit’s own story, all the spirits’ bottle designs share the story that the Wollersheim-Coquard family has helped create and that we have helped tell: one of locally-sourced ingredients, handcrafted distilling, and a plot of land soaked with history of wine and spirits alike – all key elements deserving highlight in the distillery’s products.

It’s only natural that Wollersheim’s spirits are the quality they are. And, to us, it seems only natural to emphasize what’s already genuinely, uniquely, naturally there. The value is in the product. We’re just bringing it to light.