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Bookit.ie Wine Feature…..kindly sponsored by
LABELS Buying wines and remembering our favourite wines are very subjective experiences. Labels are chosen and designed by wine makers to tell us something about the wine and to encourage us to buy it. But are they important in a restaurant setting where we have usually made our decision long before we see the label at all? There are loads of legal requirements built into wine labels. Most of these are EU driven and are there to protect the consumer and the wine trade from fraud and deception. So, all labels must state a few things such as levels of alcohol and place of production. Others are the result of national wine laws, while some are simple local allegiances or historical affiliations. Thus place names and regional identity is protected. Mind you outside the EU this is not the case. It is still possible to buy Canadian Chablis and Californian Claret!  Before wine bottles had printed labels at all it was the norm to stencil a year, place of production or even the initials of the purchaser onto the glass. Very old bottles can sometimes be identified by these marks. Probably the most famous of these marks are the Thomas Jefferson bottles. These were supposedly found by a German collector in a bricked up cellar in Paris. The bottles were marked ‘1787 Lafitte Th.J’. While the provenance of these bottles continues to be debated Christopher Forbes of Forbes magazine bought one bottle at Christies in London for £105,000. Printed labels became the norm as printing and gluing techniques improved. This allowed wine makers to explore design and colour. Nevertheless it took many years before wine bottles dropped the conservative label whereby name and place featured to the exclusion of everything else. There were very good reasons for this. Firstly the purpose of the label was seen as a measure against counterfeit and therefore was the guarantee of authenticity. This demanded conservatism. Secondly pre-digital printing was expensive and time consuming. Finally local markets didn’t need much on the label and the biggest overseas market, namely the UK, tended towards conservatism. Of course there were exceptions. The most remarkable was the vision of the late Baron Philippe de Rothschild to commission a famous name to design the Mouton labels. Bearing in mind that Mouton was, and is, one of the most renowned labels in the wine world this was a brave move. It has been a tremendous success with icon designs by the likes of Andy Warhol, Picasso, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali. The current label is a design by Prince Charles!  As place names became established they became brand names in their own right. Their importance was usually seen on restaurant lists. Thus Chianti was used along with the likes of Bordeaux because it meant something to the diner. This is still true today. You will seldom see Montelfalco on a list even though it’s right next door to Chianti! Indeed some areas such as Muscadet used to feature on lists but are so unfashionable that the name alone will not sell the wine. Certain producer names instil the same confidence. Mention Faustino in Ireland and the consumer will respond positively. The same does not apply in the UK. These soft brand names are driven by local markets and sometimes local success does not translate across the world. Others of course such as Wolf Blass or Champagne are now recognised throughout the world as brands that deliver again and again. How then does a new label, or even an unknown existing label, become noticed and trusted? One way is to be shocking. Some of the funniest and worst/tackiest labels devised fit into this category. Take Chat en Oeuf, Fat Bastard Chardonnay and Marilyn Merlot and decide for yourself whether these are funny or tacky! They have all been successful. Shock tactics however tend to have a short shelf life or just don’t translate across national boundaries. Dogs Bollocks might mean something in the UK and Ireland but means absolutely nothing elsewhere!  Another obvious route to take is to spend a lot of money on promotion and marketing. There is no doubt that Blossom Hill adopted this tactic. They designed the label with a female purchaser in mind and then spent a lot of money putting the wine in front of her while she was shopping! Physical features such as a Hill, Creek, Mountain or River seem to resonate positively with our trust in place and location. These are psychological tricks and luckily they don’t perform as well in the restaurant as they do in the supermarket. So is the wine label of any relevance in the restaurant? If we need the label to assure us that the wine is authentic then it really is a necessity and should always be viewed before the cork is pulled. If we like to look at a label rather than a ‘bare skin’ bottle then yes it is, and indeed, then design and colour are paramount to our enjoyment. On the whole these are important to enjoying our wine. In terms of choosing our wine, memory and a sommelier’s recommendation will always far outweigh labelling requirements for restaurateurs’ wine lists. You can still ask for the yellow label you had the last time! You can still ask for a label that has anything but an animal or river on it! You can still ask for pot luck and hope for the best! Best of all is that you remember why you like a wine, ask for something similar and then enjoy, fondle or criticise the label but only after deciding what you think of the wine first. WineScript ® |
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