Vintage Variations Among Labels

posted by Scott in Wine, Guest Bloggers

The question of what to do with the vintage on a wine label presents a designer with a challenge. An integral part of the label, the vintage is necessary for both marketing and legal reasons. A label that can be used year in and year out can be printed in large runs to save money and doesn’t have to be altered annually. The problem is that the vintage changes every year. To varying degrees of success, wineries are forced to find ways to reconcile cost effective printing and vintage changes. Below are three such solutions (please click on image to enlarge).

The label above upsets me. It is sloppy and thoughtless. A surplus of old labels inspired this winery to print a conspicuous black rectangle over last year’s vintage; the new vintage is forced into the remaining negative space. Wine bottles should be recycled; their labels should not.

The folks behind this label are lazy. I have seen this redacting, as well as the use of vintage-concealing stickers, perpetrated too often. It is as if an expiration date were crossed out and rewritten; it looks like a mistake has been made. It conveys cheapness and ineptitude, which is a shame given that the wine is rather tasty. A label should be an invitation to the pleasures of a wine, or at the very least inoffensive.

This label, on the other hand, offers a similar but near-seamless execution. It took me a while to realize what was going on here given the awkwardness I had come to expect from the first label. A blank space was left in advance so that the vintage (and alcohol percentage and bottle size) could be printed every year over the basic label. This approach reuses the fundamental design without actually recycling the label. It is still a little disjointed as the color of the vintage is different from the other font colors, but this label’s method of dealing with vintage is better than the one that came before it.

Exhibit #3 (above) is a simple but thoughtful solution: a two-part label. The bottom stays the same every year, while the top changes with each passing vintage. The design is elegant and effective. The vintage on the neck of the bottle doesn’t appear out of place or out of style. The vintage is given it own spotlight in a way that seems expected rather than haphazard. This solution is so successful that I didn’t even think of it when first writing this piece; it was so “natural” that a friend had to point it out to me.

As illustrated, not all solutions to the vintage dilemma are created equal. They require foresight and a bit of creativity. Forward-thinking design shouldn’t look backwards. Planning should be evident in execution. A design that inspires a “why didn’t I think of that?” rather than a “my kid could’ve done better,” reaction is proof of a job well done.

Scott Rosenbaum is director of operations for the International Wine Center and wine buyer for the retailer DrinkUpNY.

Heavy Wine

posted by Scott in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

[Snooth welcomes our newest weekly contributor, Scott Rosenbaum, director of operations for the International Wine Center and wine buyer for the retailer DrinkUpNY. Originally from Rockaway, New Jersey, Scott studied literature and design at New York University’s Gallatin School. He holds the Wine & Spirits Education Trust Advanced Certificate and is currently completing their Diploma Program as well as a Master’s in Food Studies at NYU. When he’s not tasting wine, he can be found drinking cocktails.]

The trend of rising alcohol in wine is, to me, neither alarming nor threatening. It is something else: boring. Yes, we all see it and taste it, but we seem to forget that we can avoid it. There are still a plethora of wines available to the average consumer with ethanol levels below those considered “high.” Simply consult your friendly wine label, required by law to state the alcohol by volume, and ignore those particular wines that offend you. Problem solved.

My concern is with a trend I find much more disturbing. More and more wines are coming in heavier packaging. Bottles are becoming bigger, glass is becoming thicker, and I’m becoming irritated. Weighty bottles are a pain. Cases of it are hard to lift and cost more to ship. Heavy bottles make it difficult to pour without the use of both hands. They are a general hindrance to the pleasure of drinking.

The other day I weighed ten unopened wine bottles on a postage scale. The wines were of various price points, grape varieties, and regions. Each was a red wine in a 750ml Bordeaux bottle. The lightest bottle (Coastal Ridge Merlot 2005) was 2 lbs. 12 oz., while the heaviest (Shafer Hillside Select 2003) weighed in at 4 lbs. 6 oz. That such a disparity exists is absolutely absurd.

Heavy bottles are useless to the consumer. The only entities that benefit from this bulky packaging are those who sell wine. Quite simply, weight connotes price, and, indirectly, quality. Over the last decade, winemakers and marketers have become hip to this association and now consumers and cellar workers are becoming stronger as a result. Once the provenance of expensive California cabernets, heavy wines now hail from all over the world at every conceivable price point. And why wouldn’t they? However misguided, the consumer is likely to assume that a $10 wine in a $50 dollar bottle is a great value. It looks like–and certainly feels like–one when you pick it up.

I wish that inexpensive wines would spend less on their packaging and more on what’s inside, while the expensive ones would lower their price a buck or two and use a bottle that weighs less than four pounds. I’m afraid, however, that this is only just the beginning. The good news is my biceps are showing some tone.