Noughty Wine — Rob Johnston

Case Study

Noughty Wine – Building a New York World Around the Bottle

Noughty had already made alcohol-free wine feel like a confident choice rather than a compromise.

The opportunity was to give that confidence a visual world.

The project began as an independent shoot developed with Faith Consiglio. We approached the bottle as the starting point rather than an object to be added at the end. Its color, materials, typography, and finish informed the wardrobe, locations, lighting, and overall character of the photography.

The Sparkling Rosé introduced a lighter language of transparent glass, blush wine, cream, peach, rose, and warm metallic details. Direct sunlight and pale clothing allowed those colors to move naturally between the product and the person holding it.

The Blanc called for something sharper. Dark glass, silver labeling, black leather, denim, stone, and metal led us toward the deeper interiors of Grand Central and the New York subway.

The two bottles created different moods, but they belonged to the same world.

Color was planned as part of the production rather than applied afterward. Films including Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and The Young Girls of Rochefort informed how wardrobe, architecture, light, skin, and product could be considered together.

The reference was not nostalgia for its own sake. It was the discipline of making every color in the frame contribute to the same idea.

Photographed across Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, and New York transit locations, the series combined environmental portraits, product-in-hand photography, label details, architectural frames, and motion.

The finished work gave Noughty a distinctive New York setting without losing sight of the product. Every location added atmosphere, every styling decision came back to the packaging, and the bottle remained unmistakably at the center of the campaign.