Stories in the bottle A storytelling commission for French wine company Pernod Ricard. By Justin Jin

The Brief

Background: Pernod Ricard, France's global co-leader in fine wines, wants to tell authentic stories of their artisans in their three crown-jewels: two Champagne and one Cognac houses. The aim is to nurture a sense of pride and culture among employees. They gave me carte-blanche to spend months in their prestigious houses to capture their stories.

Method: With a freedom to interview and photograph anyone from the vineyard workers to the directors, I immersed in each house to understand their essence and developed three different stories that express their unique qualities. Over a one-year period I travelled back and forth in France to capture the key moments.

Deliverables: 150 photographs and three long narrative texts for a luxury book for employees, partners, and stakeholders.

Timeline: 18 months

Stories

A grower prunes vines that will supply the grapes for Martell Cognac, the region's oldest great house.

A distiller tests the spirit level of the distillation at Martell Cognac.

Martell's buyer tastes the spirits sample of its grower.

Winter workers performing maintanence at the vineyards at Champagne Mumm. The company, situated in Reims in northern France, is currently ranked 3rd globally based on number of bottles sold.

Winter pruning.

At the laboratory during harvest.

Séverine Frerson prepares to take over the role of cellar master from Hervé Deschamps at champagne Perrier-Jouët.

Deschamps leads Frerson to the cellar containing the world's oldest bottles. Founded in 1811 in Epernay, Maison Perrier-Jouët is one of France’s most historic champagne houses, with a cellar that holds the world's two bottles of the 1825 vintage.

Cellar master Hervé Deschamps presents his creation to mamasans at a dinner in Osaka.

Geo magazine published my story.

Harnessing experiences shooting and writing for top publications, I bring to commercial projects real emotions, depth and authenticity.

International prizes attest to my work, including multiple awards at the Pictures of the Year International (POYi), Magnum Foundation and Visa Pour L'Image, the world's premier festival for photojournalism.

I am a wine-lover too, having in my younger years led the Cambridge University blind tasting team as its top taster.

Justin and his team winning the 1994 Cambridge vs Oxford wine tasting championship.

Appreciate