What You See is What You Drink

In the wine trends section of our Spring issue we noted wine labels featuring cute animals as a passé trend. So what’s the hot ticket now?

Apparently this -- labels that look like a cross between the kind of temporary marker that a winemaker would place on a bottle to keep tabs on its development in the cellar, and the sort of information that the consumer is usually provided with on the back of the bottle, not the front.

The new “truth in advertising� designs, a backlash against the over-marketing of wines, are meant to convey old-fashioned honesty and transparency, and by listing the names of the winemaker and vineyard managers, a certain amount of one-to-one relationship between the wine makers and the wine buyer. It seems everyone these days, even large multi-national companies producing millions of bottles, still want to be regarded as that little artisan winemaker stirring the vats and sleeping out in the vineyard.

Above we show two examples: the Errazuriz Organic Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 from Chile (left) and the Saint Clair Estate "Pioneer Block" Sauvignon Blanc 2006 of New Zealand (right). While here in BC, the new winery Le Vieux Pin of Osyoos is also showing this design direction on its labels.

Both the Errazuriz and the Saint Clair have made it onto the top ten finalists list of the “Europe’s Wine Label of the Year�, a contest presented by aWC Vienna 2007 and Vinum, a European wine magazine. This year, a panel of experts pre-selected the final ten from 4,260 international wine labels, with a first prize of 12,000 euros undoubtedly accounting for the record number of submissions.

The final winner will be selected by public vote and you can participate by going to go vote . There are prizes for voters as well.

And did we say no animals? Oops, the top ten selection at the aWC Vienna contest includes one label featuring ants – but then ants always show up at a party.


Why are we so interested in all this? Watch this website for news about our BC wine label contest. The winner will be decided by public vote - mail-in or electronic – on a finalist list posted in our upcoming summer 2007 issue. No 12,000 euro prize for this one, but we'll be sure to come up with something fun.


To be filed in DRINK/Drink News