Forrest Kelly
The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast
The Ancient Myth Hidden Inside This Stunning Wine Label Pt. 4
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The Ancient Myth Hidden Inside This Stunning Wine Label Pt. 4

Maba Ba reveals the creative process behind Flying Whale Wine's striking black bottle — and why simplicity was the hardest thing to achieve. Drawing on his storytelling background and the ancient legend of the Dogon people, he knew from the start the desi

Maba designed the bottle immediately after his first winemaker meeting in August — the creative energy was instant. 

The bottle's medallion design was intentional: he wanted it to feel like a collector's coin, something giftable and meaningful

The label tells the story of the Dogon people — an ancient West African cosmology involving beings who traveled to Earth in a whale-like vessel through the ocean. Design philosophy: "striking simplicity" — influenced by his storytelling and film background

 The tasting notes on the website (color, nose, palate, finish) took far longer to write than the visual design — condensing complex ideas into simple, evocative language is the real challenge. Maba references the Blaise Pascal quote about a long letter: "I didn't have time to write a short one" — brevity is the hardest craft. He keeps notebooks everywhere, including bedside, to capture early morning ideas (often 4–5am)

Forrest relates — both he and Maba are early-morning creative thinkers who chase ideas before they disappear. 

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