Opinions on labels seem to be like faces: everyone has one. And over the past few years we have heard an increasing number of ‘suggestions’ from customers that our label does not do justice to the wine in the bottle. Since our first vintage, we have downplayed our own name, subordinating it to the varietal or type of wine in the bottle as that was the information we felt was most relevant to the wine inside the bottle. At least, it was in our early days. Enter Cogito Creative Works: I could not resist their unsolicited proposal to redesign our label. So after sixteen vintages under the same basic design, we were finally persuaded to consider a stronger brand image, an elegant, uncluttered design and most of all, a style that represents the quality of wine in the bottle. And sorry, there are still no cute animals on the label.
Of course, this isn’t as simple a process as you might imagine. In addition to the difficult process of defining what you want your label to communicate as to what is inside the bottle, wine labels also have many requirements. There are very strict rules for what must appear on the label, what must not, as well as how prominent various things may be. The US government reviews each label to assure their regulations are met. Additionally, many states have their own ‘label approval’ or registration processes (and usually, related fees). There are also international rules on wine labeling which happen to conflict with our Federal rules.
So after many months, I am happy to say that as I write this, we are about to go to print with these new labels. Since this newsletter is too low-tech to include examples here, you can see for yourself from a link on our homepage www.scherrerwinery.com. Our main-line wines will have the main style, with a second, related style for fun stuff like Zinfandoodle, and Dry Rosé (or the wine previously known as Prince, er , I mean Vin Gris). While our kids initially reacted to the change as though their dad might be getting a face transplant (there’s an idea), they agreed that it truly is a ‘better’ label for our wine. I hope you will agree as well (about the label).
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