French Association of Journalists for the Environment, with McCann Paris, created Bordeaux 2050, a simulated future wine that made climate change tangible for
How McCann Paris Turned a Glass of Wine Into a Climate Warning
Bordeaux 2050 is a 2018 public interest campaign created by McCann Paris for the French Association of Journalists for the Environment, in which a scientifically simulated Bordeaux wine — formulated using projected 2050 climate conditions — was distributed to journalists and policymakers in France as a direct, sensory argument for urgent climate action.
The campaign launched in May 2018 at the Musée du Vin in Paris, according to effie.fr. Its central mechanism was disarmingly simple: rather than presenting data or imagery, McCann Paris and the Association des Journalistes de l'Environnement — known as AJE — placed a bottle of wine in the hands of France's most influential media voices and invited them to taste the future. That future, as modelled by Bordeaux oenologist and vintner Pascal Chatonnet, was described as denser, drier, less refined, more tannic, diminished, and bitter, according to Little Black Book. The sensory degradation of one of France's most culturally significant products translated climate science into something visceral and immediate.
The campaign operated in France at a moment when public and political discourse on climate change was intensifying across Europe. AJE, a professional association for environmental journalists, needed to grow its membership and amplify the credibility of environmental journalism as a discipline. Bordeaux 2050 addressed both objectives simultaneously by generating a media event that was, by design, irresistible to the press. A press kit containing the simulated wine bottle and an explanatory video was distributed to journalists, politicians, and decision-makers across France, per effie.fr, turning recipients into both the audience and the story. The Clapboard Score for Bordeaux 2050 is 63 out of 100, reflecting a campaign of recognised strategic ingenuity whose long-term cultural penetration remains bounded by its deliberately intimate, precision-targeted distribution model.
AJE identified a core tension in French environmental communication. Climate change, despite its scale, remained abstract for many audiences in France, and abstract threats rarely produce behavioural or institutional change. McCann Paris was engaged to convert that abstraction into something immediate, credible, and culturally resonant for the specific audience that shapes public understanding of environmental issues: journalists themselves.
The McCann Paris team first met with AJE wine expert and journalist Yves Leers in November 2017 at Saint-Ouen to develop the concept, according to effie.fr. The insight that emerged from those conversations was precise: Bordeaux wine is not merely an agricultural product in France, it is a national symbol whose quality is inseparable from the country's climate and terroir. Threatening that symbol with a credible, scientifically grounded simulation would make climate risk legible in a way that no statistical report could replicate. This approach placed Bordeaux 2050 within a broader tradition of what researchers and practitioners in France and internationally identify as sensory or experiential public interest communication, a category in which direct experience consistently outperforms conventional messaging in driving recall and conversation.
The competitive landscape for public interest campaigns in France in 2018 included well-resourced institutional campaigns from organisations such as ADEME, the French environmental and energy management agency, and internationally distributed work from groups such as Greenpeace France. Against that context, Bordeaux 2050 distinguished itself not through media budget but through the specificity of its target audience and the elegance of its mechanism. Weber Shandwick France was also listed alongside McCann Paris in award records, according to The One Club, indicating a coordinated public relations deployment that extended the campaign's reach through strategic media placement rather than paid advertising alone. The campaign's direct medium classification reflects this orientation toward earned, relationship-driven dissemination in the French market.
Pascal Chatonnet, Bordeaux oenologist and vintner, created the simulated 2050 wine in his laboratory, according to effie.fr. The production of the wine itself was the primary creative act. Chatonnet modelled the projected climatic conditions of Bordeaux in 2050 — assuming insufficient climate action — by sourcing Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Languedoc-Roussillon and Tunisia, two regions whose current temperatures correspond to the warmer future that climate models project for Bordeaux, per lbbonline.com and connexionfrance.com. The result was a wine whose sensory profile — denser, less elegant, more tannic, stripped of the refinement that defines classified Bordeaux — functioned as a tangible, peer-reviewed argument.
Riccardo Fregoso and Julien Chiapolini served as Executive Creative Directors at McCann Paris on the campaign, according to oneclub.org. Cédric Vanhoutte served as VP Global Business Leader at McCann Paris, per oneclub.org. The creative execution extended beyond the wine itself to encompass the press kit design, the explanatory video distributed alongside the bottle, and the staging of the tasting event at the Musée du Vin in Paris. Each element was calibrated to the sensibility of the campaign's primary audience: journalists and environmental communicators who are professionally sceptical of conventional advocacy and responsive to rigorous, evidenced claims.
The campaign's classification as a documentary and social experiment reflects its methodological orientation. Rather than constructing a fictional scenario, McCann Paris and AJE produced an actual artefact — a real wine, made from real grapes, by a credentialed oenologist — that embodied a scientifically grounded projection. The distinction matters because it determined how recipients processed the experience: not as advertising, but as evidence. That epistemic positioning was the campaign's most sophisticated creative decision, and it was built into the production process from the November 2017 briefing through to the May 2018 launch.
Bordeaux 2050 generated 500 million media contacts and impressions, according to effie.fr. The campaign produced more than 100,000 social media mentions, also per effie.fr. AJE membership increased by 14% between 2017 and 2018 following the campaign's launch, as reported by effie.fr. These figures represent exceptional reach for a public interest campaign operating in France without a conventional paid media budget, and they reflect the structural decision to target journalists — who then functioned as amplifiers — rather than general consumers directly.
The awards record corroborates the campaign's standing within the global creative industry. Bordeaux 2050 received a Cannes Lions Silver Lion in the Brand Experience category in June 2018, according to oneclub.org. It also received Cannes Lions Bronze Lions in both the Creative Data and Public Relations categories in 2018, per oneclub.org. At Effie France 2019, the campaign won Gold in the Petits budgets et opérations spéciales category — Small Budgets and Special Operations — and received the Special Jury Prize for originality of the communications program, as reported by effie.fr. The One Show recognised the campaign with a Silver Pencil in Innovation in Branded Entertainment and a Merit award in Innovation in Public Relations in 2019, according to oneclub.org. This concentration of recognition across effectiveness, creativity, and public relations disciplines is unusual and reflects a campaign whose strategic and executional coherence held across multiple evaluative frameworks. The 63 out of 100 Clapboard Score acknowledges that demonstrated achievement while noting the campaign's inherently limited distribution scale as a ceiling on transformative cultural impact.
Bordeaux 2050 was a 2018 public interest campaign by McCann Paris for AJE, the French Association of Journalists for the Environment. It created a scientifically simulated Bordeaux wine representing projected 2050 climate conditions and distributed it to journalists, politicians, and decision-makers in France to make climate change tangible and urgent.
Pascal Chatonnet, a Bordeaux oenologist and vintner, created the simulated wine in his laboratory, according to effie.fr. He sourced Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Languedoc-Roussillon and Tunisia, regions whose current climate mirrors projected Bordeaux temperatures in 2050 under insufficient climate action scenarios.
Bordeaux 2050 won a Cannes Lions Silver Lion in Brand Experience and Bronze Lions in Creative Data and Public Relations, all in 2018, according to oneclub.org. Effie France awarded it Gold and a Special Jury Prize in 2019, per effie.fr. The One Show gave it a Silver Pencil and a Merit award in 2019, per oneclub.org.
The campaign generated 500 million media impressions and more than 100,000 social media mentions, according to effie.fr. AJE membership grew by 14% between 2017 and 2018 following the campaign. These results were achieved without a conventional paid media budget, making the campaign a benchmark in the French public interest category.
Riccardo Fregoso and Julien Chiapolini served as Executive Creative Directors at McCann Paris on Bordeaux 2050, according to oneclub.org. Cédric Vanhoutte was VP Global Business Leader at McCann Paris. Weber Shandwick France was also credited in award records alongside McCann Paris, per oneclub.org, managing the campaign's public relations deployment.
AJE needed to grow its membership and elevate environmental journalism's credibility in France. The organisation, known formally as the Association des Journalistes de l'Environnement, partnered with McCann Paris to create a sensory, scientifically grounded experience that would engage France's media community on climate change more effectively than conventional reporting or advocacy materials could achieve.
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