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Berry Bros’ Good Ordinary Claret gets a makeover
Berry Bros. & Rudd’s best-selling wine, Good Ordinary Claret, has been given a dapper makeover by artist Kate Boxer, mother of London chef Jackson Boxer.
The pale pink label depicts a pistol-wielding St James’s dandy and his dog.
Dressed in a top hat, bowtie, double-breasted blazer and riding boots, and holding a pistol in one hand and a walking cane in the other, the tongue-in-cheek label tips its hat to BBR’s location in St. James’s – the home of the dandy.
“It was a great treat and surprise to be asked to make the new limited-edition label for Berry Bros. & Rudd’s famous Good Ordinary Claret.
“The figure on the label is not Beau Brummel, but someone who would very much like to be.
“He is firing his pistol in exuberant excitement at the giddy prospect of a bottle of Good Ordinary Claret. Alongside of him is my dog Figgy,” Boxer said.
“We provided as little guidance in terms of a brief as possible to ensure the designer has free rein over the label.
This way we could ensure Kate was able to create something that was true to her style,” added BBR”s creative director, Geordie Willis.
Specialising in printing and painting, Boxer works from her farmhouse in West Sussex. Her son Jackson runs the popular Brunswick House and St Leonards restaurants in London’s Vauxhall and Shoreditch.
Just 7,000 bottles of Good Ordinary Claret will sport the limited edition design, which goes on sale online today and at BBR’s shops in St. James’s and Basingstoke priced at £9.95 a bottle.
Boxer is the third artist to design a bespoke label for the popular red. In 2016 fashion designer Paul Smith created a playful design for the wine featuring a love heart.
Good Ordinary Claret has been Berry Bros’ best-selling wine for decades. The approachable Bordeaux boasts notes of “black cherries, bramble fruit and wood smoke” and offers a “velvety” finish.
The name was thought up by Christopher Berry Green and is inspired by the historic merchant’s old price lists from the early 20th century, when Bordeaux wines outside of the first growths were named according to their quality level.
Year-on-year sales of GOC are currently up by 24% in volume and 29% in value.