Designing Luxury for Retail: Lessons from Penfolds Grange
How do you elevate an icon in a category saturated with luxury cues?
That was the challenge Penfolds brought to Denomination after 23 years of partnership. The brief: create a global in-store presence for Grange, their most revered wine, that would redefine how the category thinks about premium retail experiences.
The answer wasn't more decoration. It was restraint, precision, and a fundamental rethinking of what "precious" looks like in three dimensions.
The Challenge: Distinction in a Saturated Category
Luxury wine retail faces a unique problem. In a category where everyone signals premium through similar visual codes - rich materials, dramatic lighting, bold colour - how do you create genuine distinction?
For Penfolds, the challenge was compounded by their own success. They already own red. Their visual language is established, singular, and instantly recognisable. Adding more colour or more noise wasn't the solution.
The brief demanded elevation without excess. Impact without volume. A presence that would command attention in crowded retail environments while maintaining the sophistication Grange has earned over 75 years.
This installation creates a moment of discovery, bringing together elements of retail, exhibition and product storytelling in a way that invites consumers to explore Grange from a new perspective.”
Penfolds Chief Marketing Officer Kristy Keyte
The Solution: Architecture, Not Decoration
The installation reframes Grange not as a product on shelf, but as an experience - something to be approached with reverence rather than immediacy.
At its core, the design system is built on four principles: showcase, powerful, scarcity, and elusive. Each principle translates into physical form.
Layered translucent glass creates depth and intrigue. A 25% Penfolds red tint printed on optically clear vinyl allows the brand's signature colour to work spatially, not just graphically. The glass obscures and reveals simultaneously - you see the bottle, but not quite. The tension is deliberate.
The Penfolds "P" becomes a symbolic locking mechanism, reimagined in red anodised metal. It functions both practically and metaphorically, reinforcing the idea that Grange is something to be unlocked, protected, accessed ceremonially.
Lighting is choreographed, not ambient. White LED illumination shines up onto the bottle and down into the base, drawing the eye exactly where it needs to go. The effect is theatrical without being garish - a controlled reveal that maintains mystery.
The key challenge was elevating Grange, the icon of Penfolds, above an already prestigious portfolio in a category saturated by luxury cues. The solution lies in the innovative use of form, layering, scale and materials.”
Executive Creative Director Graeme Offord
The Framework: Designed to Travel
One of the project's most significant achievements is its scalability. The installation needed to work across diverse retail environments - from Thailand flagship stores to global travel retail - while maintaining consistency and impact.
Denomination developed three formats: The Podium (a floor-standing hero piece), The Shelf Highlight (integrated into existing shelving), and The Glorifier (a counter-top presence). Each format expresses the same design language at different scales, creating a cohesive global framework.
The materials were selected for durability and precision: 6mm translucent glass with mitre-cut joints, commercial-grade scratch-resistant acrylic with frosted interior coating, red anodised metal chosen for permanence and tactile quality.
Every detail was engineered for global fabrication standards - ensuring that an installation in Melbourne delivers the same experience as one in New York.
What Luxury Retail is Becoming
This project signals a broader shift in premium retail. Physical spaces are no longer just transactional - they're experiential. The question isn't "how do we display product?" but "how do we create moments worth stopping for?”
The most effective luxury retail now borrows from exhibition design, architecture, even art installation. It understands that in a world where almost anything can be purchased online, the physical encounter must offer something digital cannot: presence, craft, theatre.
Grange has always been treated as precious in language. We simply asked what that might look and feel like in three dimensions. Our ambition was to embody Grange's lore, so you don't just see a bottle; you feel that you're standing in front of something iconic and worthy of ceremony.”
Rowena Curlewis, Denomination Co-Founder & CEO
The Lessons
Three insights emerged from this project that apply beyond wine, beyond retail:
Restraint is a luxury signal.
In a noisy category, what you don't do matters as much as what you do. The most powerful move was stripping away expected luxury cues and focusing on form, light, and mechanics.
Strategy must precede craft.
The framework - showcase, powerful, scarcity, elusive - gave every material decision a reason to exist. Without it, the installation would be beautiful but hollow.
Longevity enables ambition.
This work was only possible because of 23 years of partnership. Penfolds trusted Denomination not just to execute, but to redefine what Grange could be in physical space. That kind of trust isn't given - it's earned, project by project, year by year.
The Grange installation is now rolling out globally. It's a new chapter in a decades-long story - and a reminder that the best work happens when craft, strategy, and partnership align.
When that happens, you don't just create displays. You create presence.
