Designed by Kingdom & Sparrow, Delancia transforms South Portuguese wine into a design-driven celebration of landscape, culture, and everyday moments… one illustrated bottle at a time.
You know how half the fun of a good night out is the anticipation, the planning of where to meet on WhatsApp, and the dancing around to music in your undies as you get ready? Well, the same applies to wine. True wine lovers know it’s not just about when the liquid hits your taste buds. A good part of the joy is selecting the bottle, thinking about its flavours, and, more broadly, being drawn into its world.
In short, just as with food, where the first bite is with the eye, much of the enjoyment of wine stems from its branding. This is why Portuguese winemakers Tom Simpson and Inès Deroche wanted their products to inspire moments of everyday celebration, compelling people to embrace the simple pleasures in life, however big or small.
They envisioned a drinks brand that perfectly complements every occasion, believing that it’s the small victories, big accomplishments and little moments of happiness that truly bring meaning to our lives.
So they turned to Kingdom & Sparrow, the Cornwall branding studio whose designs for Peacock Cider we covered in August, to develop Delancia.
Brief and research
Crafted as a sparkling botanical aperitif with a delicate fizz and low alcohol content, Delancia is a wine spritz which offers a refreshing alternative to sparkling wine. It’s versatile enough to be enjoyed on its own as an aperitif, mixed into a cocktail, or shared with friends on a sunny day.
The brand launches with two distinct flavours: a sparkling rosé wine infused with pomegranate and rosemary and a sparkling white wine blended with elderflower and green tea. Delancia combInès premium Portuguese wine with innovative, all-natural flavours for an elevated drinking experience.
Delancia’s wine is sourced from Portugal’s Alentejo region, so it was essential to capture the essence of this vibrant landscape in the brand identity. Consequently, the Kingdom & Sparrow team spent time in Alentajo and Lisbon across 2023 and 2024, immersing their designers, strategists, and project management in Portuguese culture, learning about the land from which the brand stems and the lifestyles of the fun-loving, city-based consumer.
To bring Tom and Inès’ vision to life through brand and packaging, they created a collection of characters inspired by native animals, birds, plants and botanicals.
Visual identity
The brand’s visual identity is a vibrant love letter to Portugal’s Alentejo region, transforming a simple drink into a narrative of landscape, culture and celebration. From the region’s vivid colours and untamed beauty to its rich culture and spirited people, every element of Delancia’s design reflects the heart of Alentejo.
At the core of the visual language is the Iberian lynx—an endangered species that becomes the brand’s primary mascot. This choice speaks to the design team’s deep dive into the region’s ecology and spirit.
The lynx, elegantly depicted pouring a glass, anchors a cast of supporting characters, including hoopoes, swallows and local botanical elements that weave a rich storytelling tapestry across the packaging.
Packaging, colour and illustrations
For the bottle packaging, the strategy took Kingdom & Sparrow to a place of dreaminess and playfulness, which would spark curiosity and imagination. They delivered this by designing two distinct scenes, one for each flavour, with the Iberian lynx at the centre, surrounded by a lively cast of supporting illustrations.
In this way, each flavour’s unique personality works to create a bold, colourful and dynamic visual world for the drinker. Future-proofing the brand with more than 100 individual illustrated assets created over the course of the project, this packaging is ready for extension into new flavours, allowing the brand to grow over time.
The colour story, meanwhile, is deliberately evocative. The rosé variant embraces warm oranges and purples, while the white wine iteration plays with greens and turquoises. Gold foil accents and embossing elevate the design, adding a touch of premium sophistication.
The team chose a traditional sparking wine bottle shape, which allows the illustrations to pop while maintaining sophistication. A muselet cork closure and neck strap further differentiate Delancia from other sparkling wines on the shelf. Furthermore, the undressed nature of the closure reminds the consumer that while this is something special, it’s also for the everyday.
Elsewhere, single-serve cans, designed with the same artwork style as the bottles, provide a convenient option for parties, festivals and outdoor events, demonstrating that the brand can flex to a more informal occasion.
A design-driven experience
The result of all this is more than just a drink. Delancia is a design-driven experience that invites consumers to celebrate life’s small moments through a carefully crafted visual and sensory journey.
The brand has officially launched in Portugal and plans to expand to European markets in the near future. Over the summer, founders Tom and Inès brought Delancia to festivals across the country, and they were thrilled by the positive reception.
Over time, their goal is to introduce social drinkers to a fresh and innovative wine experience, positioning Delancia as the go-to choice for everyday celebrations.
