After a Devastating Flood, Brazil's Otto Wine Redefines Its Brand

'It was a sign that our story wasn't over'

Destruction, paradoxically, brought clarity.

When the floods swept through Rio Grande do Sul, it felt like watching years of work dissolve in a matter of hours. Our production, our identity, our history—all submerged.

But in the days that followed, we discovered something unexpected: a nearly century-old letter from one of our ancestors. Water-stained, fragile, but intact. Alongside it, a few family records and a couple of bottles that survived. Fragments, yes—but filled with meaning. It was a sign that our story wasn’t over.

We didn’t want to simply rebuild Otto as it was. We wanted to transform pain into poetry. That decision required going beyond logistics or recovery plans. It required tapping into something emotional. What emerged was a new logo, painted in watercolor, where the edges dissolve like the memory or floodwaters. The label design followed: irregular, torn, as if salvaged from the letter itself. Each bottle, imperfect by design, became a tangible expression of survival.

To help us bring this vision to life, we collaborated with Noad Creative. They approached the project not just as a marketing brief, but as a human story. They understood that we weren’t just launching a new label—we were processing grief, finding language for loss and trying to channel it into something meaningful. The visual identity that came from this collaboration wasn’t just about aesthetics. It was about truth. About emotion. About rebuilding with intention.

We thought we were rebuilding a brand. But what we were really doing was reconnecting—with our roots, our values and with people far beyond our region.

The response surprised us. Other entrepreneurs who were also affected by the disaster reached out, saying our decision to continue inspired them to do the same. Restaurants that had paused their orders started restocking our wines as a gesture of solidarity. Tourists returned, curious to witness a story of rebirth.

And then the media came—first local, then national—amplifying our message. Soon, we began receiving emails and letters from other countries, asking how to purchase our wines or simply sharing how moved they were by our story.

We realized we had created something greater than a product. Otto had become a symbol—not only of resilience, but of the transformative power of storytelling through design.

That same spirit inspired our next step: Nottorio, a new line of wines. If our previous labels carried pieces of a real letter found in the wreckage, Nottorio’s labels carry imagined ones—letters as if written by life itself. They speak of time, loss, renewal and memory. These bottles are not just for drinking. They’re for feeling. For remembering. For connecting.

We’ve always believed that wine is more than taste. For us, each bottle represents a story waiting to be uncorked. And when the design is done with soul—when it carries honesty and vulnerability—it becomes a bridge. A way to connect people to something deeper, regardless of language or geography.

Otto is still a small Brazilian brand. But the message we carry has reached much farther than we imagined. We’ve heard from people across oceans who saw a part of themselves in our journey. And that’s what makes all the difference.

We didn’t plan to become a symbol of hope. We simply chose to move forward with authenticity. And now, each bottle we send out carries more than wine. It carries the proof that rebirth is possible—even when everything seems lost.