James Jean Southern Gothic Wine Collection

3 Triptych Box Sets

R Wines/Grateful Palate

 

James Jean and Dan Philips (Grateful Palate) became friends meeting in the early 2000’s when James was illustrating covers for graphic novels and Dan was importing wines from Australia.

“It was no surprise to me that James Jean created beautiful labels for me in the early 2000’s for a project called the Southern Gothic Wine Collection.  At the time he created three different triptychs. Two red wines and one white.  Southern Belle was the flagship, a big, rich tantalizing wine.  Poor Thing was a sexy, sensual grenache.  Diddley Bow, a racy, startling, electric white wine.  What was a surprise was that he created labels that captured Southern Gothic culture as if he had been born in the south.   

In 2008, I stopped making the triptychs and each wine is now bottled in one label, or one panel. James talks of “thwarted desire” and “sad romance” as themes that motivated him in creating these labels.  To me, James work is always about love; and usually a journey from a place of challenge, sadness, pain, disappointment, loss, but the vision of beauty is always present and the destination of love, is never far away.  These labels are early James Jean work, when these themes were very present and manifest in a direct way; though less complicated, layered and perhaps whimsical as his later work has developed.  But these early labels have an intensity that I associate with the work of a young artist.”

-Dan Philips (Grateful Palate / R Wines)

 

Southern Belle Triptych

Southern Belle is a unique and revolutionary wine. It was the first wine to use aged bourbon barrels in the vinification protocol.  This technique was at first experimental but after years of trials, the results were so spectacular that they became the cornerstone of this wine and others that we made later in what I now call The Southern Gothic Wine Collection.  The idea to use the bourbon barrels came over a dinner with my buddy Julian Van Winkle at a Southern Foodways Alliance meeting at Blackberry Farm in 2001.  It was simply an idea that came up in conversation. Hey, let's do something together.  What about putting wine in used Pappy barrels? Okay, I'll send you some.  I don't know if you've ever seen old, used bourbon barrels, but they're ugly.  When the winemakers first saw the barrels, they flat out refused to put wine anywhere near them.  But, eventually they did.  In Australia we made the wine out of old vine, concentrated Shiraz.  Today I make the wine in southern Spain and it's a blend of Syrah and Monestrell. Originally I conceived Southern Belle as a triptych of three different labels, all designed by the sublimely talented fine artist James Jean, but today in Spain, I've decided to use only one.


Diddly Bow Triptych

Diddley Bow is the white wine in the Southern Gothic Wine series.  It was originally a Riesling from Western Australia, but is now a luscious Malvasia blend from Northern Spain.  The artwork by James Jean was originally part of a triptych—Diddley Bow, Gut Bucket, and Whimmey Diddle—but now we produce only Gut Bucket. 

 

Poor Thing Triptych

Poor Thing may be my favorite of all James Jeans' original artwork for the Southern Gothic series.  Originally a triptych, and a wine from old vine Australian Grenache. Now the wine is made from old vine Grenache in Northern Spain, and I use only one of the labels, the center image of the waif.  


 

James Jean is a Taiwanese-American visual artist working primarily in painting and drawing. He lives and works in Los Angeles, where he moved from New York in 2003
*original Triptych Art: http://www.jamesjean.com/work2007

 

R Wines is based in Australia, produces wine from vineyards all over Australia including Riesling from Western Australia, Pinot Noir from Victoria, Shiraz from McLaren Vale and the Barossa just to name a few. R Wines was founded in 2005 by partners Dan Philips, and Chris Ringland. Chris is one of world's leading and most gifted winemakers. He leads teams of winemakers and viticulturalists managing vineyards Australia wide. R Wines that make it to the shelf are not merely sound and well-made, but are stylish, compelling, hand-crafted and peerlessly delicious. We believe that what goes on the bottle is as important as what goes in the bottle and work with world-class designers to create innovative, loud, brilliant labels that speak to consumers in ways unique to the wine world. The best Grenache in the world is in Australia. The Chateau Chateau project is a study of the effects of soil and place. Five icon vineyards and one blend with distinct expressions, soils and locations in the Barossa and McLaren Vale. There is no illusion, this project includes the world's best Grenache

 

Grateful Palate is a wine producer and international distributor based in Los Angeles, Barcelona, and SF producing wine in Spain, France, and Oregon primarily working with old vine Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Malvasia and bubbly wine from Catalonia and Champagne with innovative labels aiming for the cutting edge of wine and design. The wines are distributed world wide. Winemaking directed by Oriol Illa. Owner and founder Dan Philips.

https://gratefulpalate.com/

 

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