Once upon amazing wine labels...

The label is a tool for business development. It must make people want to buy the product. My opinion? The label must meet three criteria:

The hook that should attract the consumer's eye. It corresponds to different worlds (traditional, local, pattern ...).

The offer that meets the style of wine, its positioning, its price. The consumer needs that guide. Hence the role of the label, the logo of the brand.

The guarantee provided by the legal (AOC bottling the castle) and various awards.

Here in France we are the dunces of wine label design, surrounded by to much LEGAL... It's why I love to dig on the web what's up in world wine design. Here I found you some good ones.

B Frank Wine's Label

 Leave a personal message to your collegue or lover, this is the bottle you want to have with you.  Just be sincere, let your mind speak.  This design is the work of Talia Cohen for the B Frank digital marketing agency.  Quite frankly, I love it.

Boarding Pass Shiraz

A nod to airport customers, probably one of the most original label these years.   The front label is essentially a boarding pass with the travel details replaces with information about the wine.  This 2005 Shiraz has been a big hit in the world of packaging design, encompassing the entire air travel experience in one bottle. 

Francis Ford Coppola “Carmine” Wine Jug

The design crew at Sfaustina created this obelisk of a wine jug for film’s most noteworthy wine lover, Francis Ford Coppola.  Coppola’s father, Carmine, used to stock wine jugs in his basement where the young Francis would play.  The young Coppola attempted to carry a jug across the basement with a pencil through the handle, but the pencil broke and the jug shattered.  To recreate Mr. Coppola’s childhood, Sfaustina designed this jub with a dark label with sheet music written by Francis’s father and a black pencil in the handle.  The name, of course, is “The Carmine”, named for the Coppola family patriarch.

Inkwell Wine’s Rorschach-Inspired Wine Bottles

I love this one! Of course, it's made for psychotics... Clever idea this one, everyone can see what he wants. I even recommend to analyse it BEFORE and AFTER consumption...

Matsu Organic Wine

A quick glance at these bottles instantly communicates this winery’s main value– three generations of expertise.  The Matsu Organic Wine bottles show the history of this wine from grandfather to grandson, showing the focus this family has put into its grape over these generations.  Each label represents a different wine from Matsu, “El Pícaro”, “El Recio” and “El Viejo”– each with it’s own personality and flavor

Let It Grow Wine Bottles

Brazilian design firm LetItGrow wanted to reach out to their clients with a special gift.  The designers took 100 empty wine bottles, painted them white and then illustrated each bottle by hand.  Before delivering the unique work of art, they wrapped each unit in a vacuum-sealed black plastic label with a description about its contents. 

Return of the Living Red

The crew from /M/A/S/H/ returns to this list with a special bottle for Redheads Wine.  A collaboration with Redheads Studio yielded a bottle called “Return of the Living Red”– a simple, provocative design with a throwback to classic horror films.  Save for a seal of blood-red wax over its cork, Return of the Living Red is only adorned with a simple, aged envelope containing clues about the bottle’s contents.  The cards within the envelope continue the horror story, showcasing the illustrative handiwork of the /M/A/S/H/ team

It is now clear that the label must enchant the consumer, caught his eye (by color, shape, material), making them want to find the product. To attract a younger audience looking for a modern design, you can bet, besides the color, the original cuts, new skins. The over pack is also important and can create the event.

In summary, a makeover and create label must return to a global approach to accurate identification of the business strategy.