the design of a wine label

As I sit here drinking a glass of wine in one of our Target knock-off Riedel wine glasses, I hearken back to a conversation that took place at book group on Friday night (yes, admittedly, it is often actually wine group). The conversation started when I was perusing the selection of wine available for consumption during the evening.

There were 11 people in attendance, and there were 13 bottles of wine available (make what ever assumptions you want to here about our consumption and the quality and volume of our ensuing discussion). There were several bottles of wine with expensive, ivory colored, papery-looking labels, with Italian sounding names (like Chateau Leoville Las Cases) embossed in either dark burgundy or black. You see, back in the old days, I would have bought those bottles of wine because: a:) I know nothing about wine, and as we have been taught by the likes of People Magazine, the more expensive looking, the better quality; and b:) the older it looks, the better is to supposed to taste (you know, that whole aging thing) more expensive it actually is.

The rest of the bottles of wine had glossy, irregularly shaped labels and sported names like Red Truck, Tin Roof, Pure Evil, Pillarbox Padthaway Red, and Boarding Pass Shiraz. I mean, for under $20, why wouldn't you try one of these bottles, for the name alone? As a matter of fact, I tend to discount the "fancy name" bottles of wine that are under $20.

Then comes the label design itself. Here are a few of my favorites:

I know that I have certainly spent $20 on worse looking things that can't even be consumed. I mean, really, how poor can these wines be? If they have someone in their employ that can come up with these designs, don't you suppose they have a tiny little bit of wine making talent?

I don't know who was the first winemaker to "break the mold" when it came to naming and labeling their wines, but I can tell you this: they have sold many a bottle of wine to this thirty-something consumer (and many of my friends) by name and label alone. Happy drinking! (and shopping!)