Wine labels carry a lot of information, and you want to be sure to include everything required by law, and everything needed by potential buyers to induce them to purchase. In general, you should include:

1. Information required by law. This varies by country, but in the U.S. you’re going to need to include the Surgeon General’s Warning, wine’s approximate alcohol content, if it contains sulfites, and the size of the bottle, just to name a few

2. The Winery or wine maker, and if the wine is estate bottled (grapes were grown and harvested from the winery’s vineyards)

3. The vintage

4. The variety

5. The country or region where the grapes were grown

6. The fun stuff! Where you can get descriptive about your wine and woo your customers into buying 

Wine labels can get to looking a bit crowded if you’re not careful. Really think about how you lay the information out on your label, and have several people look them over to see how they respond. Is it hard for them to see if it’s a Cab or a Syrah? Can they quickly locate where the wine is from? Does the label design grab them emotionally?

Wine labels are a mix of the required and the optional. It’s up to you to make it all play nicely in the sandbox together!

Wine labels don’t make the news very often, but when the state of Alabama bans your label, it’s going to generate buzz. Back in July, Alabama let Hahn Family Wines out of California know that they would not allow sales of their Cycles Gladiator Wine because the label is too racy. The label depicts a nude nymph flying beside a winged bicycle, and is from a vintage (1895) bicycle ad poster. I had noticed, and admired, the label before but apparently I have different taste than the folks running Alabama. You might want to check it out and decide for yourself. Personally, I hope their sales spiked- GO! American! Small! Business!

Wine labels that catch your eye (good or bad) like the Cycles Gladiator Wine did are tops in my book. I saw another fun label in B Frank. B Frank labels are customizable post-purchase for the consumer. The label says “I’m only drinking with you because…” and then there are several fill in the blank lines to write on. Clever and fun in my book!

Wine labels that make you think, pause, laugh- experience any kind of emotion, really- are a great goal. Happy designing!

Wine labels continue to generate buzz for marketing savvy wineries. My sister was visiting from Wisconsin this week, and we went out for a celebratory glass of wine for my birthday (Hello, 40! It’s time for a new decade!) last night. She was telling me about a wine she’d had that simply has a ” ? ” on the label. The winery wanted to keep their new blend a secret, and, more importantly generate some buzz about their wine. Cleary it’s working because we were talking about it. If it had been a ‘regular’ label, I’m sure it wouldn’t have come up in conversation. By the way, my sister said it was a great wine.

Wine labels that generate that type of buzz can carry even a mediocre wine in the market for quite awhile. Think ‘Yellow Tail’. Not a great wine, but they came up with a great Kangaroo logo for their label and a low price point that drove meteoric sales for quite some time. Their wine label was fresh, interesting and new in a market that to that point was filled with fairly mundane labels.

Wine labels should drive sales. Period. End of story. Ask yourself: What is our wine label doing to make a consumer stop, pick up our bottle and buy?

Wine labels make for interesting conversation. Last night we had a family meeting for my son’s baseball team. Three of the families there have been making their own wine for several years. This year’s batch will be 600 bottles, and I must say is quite tasty. Wine labels have gone from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ for them. Their production and quality has gotten to the point where having a nice wine label will make a difference.

Wine labels, like any product label are the first impression anyone gets of your product. Our friends are starting to give their wine as gifts to clients and friends, so their labels are starting to mean something. Wine labels are like thumb prints, so I can’t wait to see what they come up with as a design.

Wine labels can convey so many messages. Will their wine labels be about the three families? The grapes they use? Their interests? Where we live? Whatever they choose it will be fun to see their wine with a great label showing off the hard work they’ve done producing a wine that friends, family and customers will enjoy. Salud!

Wine labels continue to amaze me. Not so long ago, wine labels were as dry and boring as bad Chianti that had been left to molder in the back of the liquor cabinet. You know the kind I’m talking about; wicker & dust spring to mind. Now, walking the aisles of a wine store is akin to visiting a very tasty art gallery.

Wine labels have become an array of color and design, and the new ideas are fun to see. Wine producers finally realized that great wine labels, not just great grapes, really do make product sell. Lucky us! We get to view rows upon rows of great wine labels as a result. Cheers!