“La Nuit Perdue” – the lost night – refers to a very real tradition in the Languedoc: to harvest grapes at cool temperatures, winegrowers have long been out in the fields well before sunrise or in the middle of the night. In the southern French summer heat, the temperature difference between day and night can be as much as 20 degrees – anyone harvesting in daytime heat above 30 degrees risks the grapes losing their freshness, acidity and aromas before they even reach the winery. Cool-picked berries also stay firmer and are less prone to oxidation, and the winery saves energy because the grapes arrive already cool. So night becomes the working day – and it is precisely this “lost night” of the winegrowers that gives the cuvée its name.

A deep midnight blue sets the stage for an intricate rosette of fine, interwoven lines – a kind of nocturnal mandala, at whose center a single red dot glows like a distant star above the night-time vineyards. The gold-embossed wordmark “LA NUIT PERDUE” and the handwritten signature “Pays d’Oc” anchor the label in its southern French origin without losing its nocturnal poetry.

For illustration, art direction and final artwork, I supported the label from the first rosette sketch through to production-ready print files – coordinated with the dark bottle color and the capsule’s foil embossing.