Four Key Trends Shaping Beer and Wine Design in 2025

In the intensely competitive beer and wine industry, packaging and labelling represent the first, and at times, the only opportunity to leave a lasting impression. As graphic design trends continue to evolve, they provide innovative avenues to tell a compelling story, evoke nuanced emotions, and convey a sense of premium quality to potential consumers. Highlighted below are four distinctive design trends, as forecasted by Packaging World’s global network of freelance designers on 99designs by Vista, which are anticipated to shape the aesthetic landscape of beer and wine in 2025:

  1. Etches and Imprints: A Touch of Humanity

This visual trend celebrates imperfection and authenticity by focusing on the tactile quality of design: it’s all about textures. Inspired by hand-drawn scribbles, smudges, and linocut techniques, this style exudes warmth and craftsmanship and is perfect for both wine and beer brands.

How to apply it:

Incorporate hand-drawn illustrations that feel raw and organic and avoid a flawless finish. Think smudged ink or charcoal strokes that look as if they might have been drawn straight onto the bottle.

Use textured printing techniques that mimic artistic styles like linocuts or etching to elevate details on your packaging design.

Pair these elements with natural tones and uncoated paper stocks to reinforce a handmade vibe.

Why it works:

This design trend will make your brand approachable and genuine, qualities that resonate with consumers seeking authentic experiences. A wine label featuring a linocut style print or pen and ink illustration pushes back against synthetic perfection, successfully communicating heritage and care, alongside aesthetic shelf appeal.

  1. Fine Art to Fine Wine: Packaging as Art

This trend transforms wine labels and beer cans into gallery-worthy masterpieces. By pulling consumers’ attention to intricate artwork or photography on the label, the design itself becomes a centrepiece, exuding a sophistication and elegance that in turn elevates the product inside. From paint-like textures to monochrome photographic prints, wine brands can capture the magic of fine art in new and unexpected ways.

How to apply it:

Use simple geometric shapes or borders to frame intricate illustrations or detailed imagery – don’t be afraid to have elements overlap the edges to capture attention.

Choose soft, neutral backgrounds to allow the “framed” design to shine.

Pair the artwork with minimalistic typography for a balanced, high-end feel.

Why it works: 

This style of label design evokes the exclusivity and refinement of collectible art. This can range from traditional, more classical styles to avant-garde illustrations perfect for craft beer cans, but what is key is that advancements in printing technology make it easy for brands to feature detailed, high-quality reproductions that don’t lose any of the details and textures that make it feel special.

  1. Playful Mascots that Amp Up Personality

In contrast to the more polished and serious design styles, the trend that elevates hand-drawn mascots embraces humor and whimsy. With bold, simple outlines reminiscent of doodles, these mascots invite consumers to smile and engage with the brand or product.

How to apply it:

Create a playful character that aligns with your brand’s personality—and it doesn’t have to be a grape or a hop! Some of the most successful mascots are much more unexpected, with anthropomorphic animals being a firm favorite around the world.

Use bold, contrasting colors to make the mascot pop.

Keep the design clean and uncomplicated, allowing the mascot to take center stage.

Why it works: 

Consumers are increasingly drawn to brands that don’t take themselves too seriously. A mascot—especially one that looks as if it might have been drawn in Sharpie— creates a sense of approachability and joy, making this design trend perfect for casual, social occasions where you might be enjoying a craft beer or sparkling wine.

  1. Collage and Scrapbooking: Layers of Storytelling

One of this year’s biggest design trends is a structured scrapbook style that captures the nostalgia of scrapbooking and gives it a modern, polished twist. This style thrives on layering, balance, and intentional placement to create a rich, multi-dimensional look that doesn’t overwhelm. Perfect for wine brands looking to stand out from the crowd, this is another trend that captures a hand-crafted, artisanal aesthetic without compromising on modernity.

How to apply it:

Layer textures, photos, doodles, and sticker-like elements in a cohesive layout.

Don’t be afraid to use sharp color accents to highlight elements of grayscale design.

Maintain a balance between playful elements and clean typography to ensure legibility and avoid overcrowding.

Why it works: 

Collage and scrapbooking are a perfect medium for visual storytelling. A beer label could layer photos of its origin story with playful sketches, while a wine label might use cutouts and highlighted details to evoke a sense of heritage and community, for example.

These design trends showcase the diverse ways beer and wine brands can connect with consumers in 2025. Whether you are seeking elegance, humor, or layered storytelling, these creative approaches will help your products stand out on the shelf and resonate in ways that remain authentic and true to your brand Consider exploring one of these trends to elevate your brand’s visual impact!

 

Source: Packaging World

 

 

Wine Industry Study Finds Growing Use of SMS, Online Chat & Age Gates in 2025

VinterActive, a leader in direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing within the wine industry, has published its latest research report, VinQuest™ 2025: Adoption of SMS Marketing, Online Chat & Age Gates by U.S. Wineries. This rigorous study, utilizing a methodology with a 3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level, presents pivotal benchmarks in contemporary wine marketing practices:

  • 20% of U.S. wineries have implemented online age gates to prevent underage website visitors.
  • 13% of U.S. wineries offer an option for website visitors to engage via text messaging.
  • 3% of U.S. wineries provide an online chat feature.

Bryan St. Amant, Founder & CEO of VinterActive, underscored the significance of these findings: “As competition evolves, wine marketing benchmarks help merchants make better business decisions. Since the impact of email and social media is well documented in the wine industry, it’s time to look ahead by focusing on emerging digital marketing tools.”

Key Research Findings

This study involved detailed surveys of 500 winery websites, randomly selected from the top nine U.S. wine-producing states. It revealed critical insights into:

  • The variability of digital wine marketing tactics across different U.S. wine regions.
  • The types of online age gates currently deployed by U.S. wineries.
  • The nature of consumer consent is collected when visitors opt-in to receive SMS messages.

Implications for U.S. Wineries

The complete report, VinQuest™ 2025: Adoption of SMS Marketing, Online Chat & Age Gates by U.S. Wineries, further delves into how these findings translate into opportunities and risks for individual wine brands, wine regions, and the broader U.S. wine industry in 2025.

For more information or to request a complimentary copy of this research report, visit  VinterActive Research.

Taste-Driven AI Algorithms Enhance Wine Selections

For wine enthusiasts, choosing a bottle of wine can be challenging when scanning unfamiliar labels, while shopping. Questions that come to mind: What does it taste like? What was the last one I bought that tasted so good? Vivino, Hello Vino, Wine Searcher and other apps let wine buyers scan labels to get information about the wine and read reviews of others. These apps have been built from artificially intelligent algorithms.

Using taste or other sensory inputs as data sources is entirely new.

Now, scientists from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the University of Copenhagen and Caltech have shown that you can add a new parameter to the algorithms that makes it easier to find a precise match for your own taste buds: Namely, people’s impressions of flavour.

“We have demonstrated that, by feeding an algorithm with data consisting of people’s flavour impressions, the algorithm can make more accurate predictions of what kind of wine we individually prefer,” says Thoranna Bender, a graduate student at DTU who conducted the study under the auspices of the Pioneer Centre for AI at the University of Copenhagen.

More accurate predictions of people’s favourite wines
The researchers held wine tastings during which 256 participants were asked to arrange shot-sized cups of different wines on a piece of A3 paper based upon which wines they thought tasted most similarly. The greater the distance between the cups, the greater the difference in their flavour. The method is widely used in consumer tests. The researchers then digitized the points on the sheets of paper by photographing them.

The data collected from the wine tastings was then combined with hundreds of thousands of wine labels and user reviews provided to the researchers by Vivino, a global wine app and marketplace. Next, the researchers developed an algorithm based on the enormous data set.

“The dimension of flavour that we created in the model provides us with information about which wines are similar in taste and which are not. So, for example, I can stand with my favourite bottle of wine and say: I would like to know which wine is most similar to it in taste – or both in taste and price,” says Thoranna Bender.

Professor and co-author Serge Belongie from the Department of Computer Science, who heads the Pioneer Centre for AI at the University of Copenhagen, adds:

“We can see that when the algorithm combines the data from wine labels and reviews with the data from the wine tastings, it makes more accurate predictions of people’s wine preferences than when it only uses the traditional types of data in the form of images and text. So, teaching machines to use human sensory experiences results in better algorithms that benefit the user.”

Thoranna Bender points out that the researchers’ method can easily be transferred to other types of food and drink as well:

“We’ve chosen wine as a case, but the same method can just as well be applied to beer and coffee. For example, the approach can be used to recommend products and perhaps even food recipes to people. And if we can better understand the taste similarities in food, we can also use it in the healthcare sector to put together meals that meet with the tastes and nutritional needs of patients. It might even be used to develop foods tailored to different taste profiles.”
The researchers have published their data on an open server and can be used at no cost.

“We hope that someone out there will want to build upon our data. I’ve already fielded requests from people who have additional data that they would like to include in our dataset. I think that’s really cool,” concludes Thoranna Bender.

Key Facts:
1. Wine apps are using AI algorithms to assist users in selecting wines based on labels and reviews.
2. Researchers integrated people’s flavor impressions into the algorithms for more accurate wine recommendations.
3. This approach can be extended to beer, coffee, and personalized food recommendations, benefiting various industries.

Source: Neuroscience News

Wine News: Trade in Wine and Vine Products Continues to Raise

The first edition of the Vine and Wine World Trade Forum was held a few weeks ago in Dijon, France. It has revealed that international trade in wine and vine-related products has grown significantly over the past two decades.

The market has also become more diversified as consumer tastes have changed. While traditional winemaking economies, such as France, Italy and Spain, maintain their dominance in wine exports, “new world” winemakers, such as Australia, Chile and the United States, are also making major inroads. However, the share of China as an importer has declined following a period of growth, possibly due to global disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the World Trade Organization, International trade in wine and vine products, have almost tripled over the past two decades. Its value steadily rising from US$ 17.7 billion in 2000 to over US$ 50 billion in 2021 and 2022. Wine accounted for the majority of this trade (76 per cent in 2022), while the remaining 24 per cent consisted of fresh and dried grapes and grape juice.

The “old world” continues to dominate wine exports with France, Italy and Spain holding the top three positions in both value and volume. From the “new world,” Australia, Chile and the United States are the main suppliers in terms of value, although their shares in the international market remain smaller than those of the top three.

On the imports side the primary wine-importing countries include Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. They are closely matched in terms of volume, but the United States takes a clear lead in value. A surge in China’s wine imports began in 2005 and peaked in 2017, but it has more than halved since then. This decline may be due to short-term disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as longer-term structural shifts, such as increased domestic production and possible changes in consumer preferences.

For further stats and details: https://www.wto.org/english/blogs_e/data_blog_e/blog_dta_20oct23_e.htm

Source: World Trade Organization

No + Low Category Surpasses $11 Billion

The no and low alcohol categories grew over 7% in volume across 10 key global markets in 2022 to surpass a market value of $11bn, a new report from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis has revealed

Category consumption is expected to increase by a third by 2026, with the pace of growth forecasted to grow by a CAGR of 7% between 2022 and 2026, an increase on growth of 5% CAGR between 2018 and 2022.

Among the 10 examined markets, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the market value of no- and low-alcohol products surpassed $11 billion, up from $8 billion in 2018.

“The dynamic no/low-alcohol category presents opportunities for incremental sales growth as consumers are recruited from drinks categories such as soft drinks and water. Brand owners have an opportunity to recruit non-drinkers of alcohol,” said Susie Goldspink, head of no- and low-alcohol, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

“As more people opt to avoid alcohol on certain occasions – or abstain from it altogether – no-alcohol is steadily increasing its share of the no/low category.”

No-alcohol volumes grew by 9% in 2022, a CAGR it is expected to maintain between 2022 and 2026, and now accounts for 70% of the no- and low-alcohol segment, up from 65% in 2018.

No-alcohol beer and cider is expected to contribute nearly 70% of the overall category growth between 2022 and 2026.

“No-alcohol is growing faster than low-alcohol in most markets,” said Goldspink.

“The countries where this does not apply, such as Japan and Brazil, are early-stage low-alcohol markets with a small volume base.”

Germany remains the world’s largest market for the category followed by Japan, Spain, the US, and the UK.

Source:  IWSR

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