Naturally elegant

Palmer & Co was established 75 years ago by seven grower-families. Today the champagne cooperative owns over 415 hectares of vineyards, among them 200 hectares in the Montagne de Reims region, the birthplace of champagne.  

Palmer & Co combines different grape varieties, vintages and grands crus to create a very special range of champagnes. Their style embodies harmony and a natural elegance that evokes lasting emotions.

The new champagne ‘Amazone de Palmer’ perfectly showcases their special art of winemaking. The champagne house used a mixture of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes selected from various vintages, and, for the first time, included a share of grands crus greater than 50%. This exquisite champagne has been stored for 10 years in cool chalk cellars that are situated 18 meters below the ground. The bottles were turned manually on remuage racks. The champagne house describes the bouquet of Amazone de Palmer as a nose of exotic fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg, candied zest, roasted hazelnuts and brioche.

Palmer & Co then sought a secondary packaging for this premium wine that would reflect its iconic style, as well as its commitment to the environment. They found it at Ethicpack, a design agency that specialises in sustainable packaging and that has adopted the principle of only using recyclable materials and converting expertise from surrounding regions. The ‘Sculpturbox’ developed by co-founder Johannes Gräber perfectly suited the customer’s needs.

‘Sculpturbox’ consists of FibreForm® White Duo – a unique, FSC-certified folding box board. Its high tensile stretch and tearing resistance allow for unusually high embossing, unheard of in the field of cartonboard. ‘Thanks to this high relief, we were able to play with light and shadow, which permitted us to reduce the use of print inks and hot foils,’ says Mr Gräber. The one-colour printing ink on the reverse side of the box is made from natural ingredients. It is only the champagne brand to use a discreet gold and black hot foil. At the same time, the unique blind embossing of the carton gives a touch of natural elegance to the packaging that makes it clearly stand out from the other products on the retail shelf.

‘As Palmer & Co wanted a bigger box with a volume comparable to that of a rigid carton, we equipped the folding box with an insert made from FibreForm® White Duo to secure the elegant 75cl champagne bottle,’ Mr Gräber explains. The box can be delivered flat, therefore minimising transport and storage costs. It has also been designed in such a way that it can be opened and closed without the need for self-adhesives or magnets.

To sum up, the new packaging not only has a lower carbon footprint but has also helped reduce the weight and cost of the box by 50% compared to the previous packaging. This was possible thanks to careful selection of the material and the folding box board design, as well as the decision to source raw materials and converting expertise from Europe.

Product info:

Material: FibreForm® White Duo

Folding box: Le Sanglier

Embossing tool: Créanog

Hot foil: Kurz

Design: Johannes Gräber (Ethicpack)