Wine Bottle Labels

Wine is as old as the hills it would seem – wine bottle labels not so much. The first wine bottle labels were first introduced by a French Monk Named Pierre Perignon in the 17th century. The wine bottle label was made of parchment and tied to the bottle’s neck with a piece of string – simple enough. This comes as no surprise because when we think of the French – the first thing that comes to mind is wine for the most part.

As wine became more popular, different blends were being made which needed to be labeled (for quality and origin). These were the beginnings of the more modern wine bottle labels that we see today.

As time went on, more advanced methods of wine label making became known. One man who had a major influence in the wine label process was Alois Senefelder from Czechoslovakia. Senefelder invented lithography – the process of printing from flat metal formerly stone, the surface treated so as the repel the ink except where it is required for printing.

This was an advantage over printing each label by hand as done previously. Since the wine bottle labels were produced by a machine rather than by hand, more information could be included on the label.

Wine bottle labels continued to progress in the 19th century when they gave more information then - the characteristics of the town they came from for example. At the time, champagne labels were very colorful and brought attention to themselves. Not to be outdone – wine makers decided to move away from the boring black fonts and white papers and add more interesting details to their labels e.g. coat of arms, awards, portraits, landscapes and individual wine families.

Today, wine bottle labels are extravagant in nature and are a work of art themselves. Wine bottle label makers take pride in producing their own style to give the consumer a hint of what to expect. The more sophisticated the wine label, the better quality the wine will be, right? - If one sees a cartoonish figure on the wine label the chances are good the wine won’t be of high quality.

The fancier the wine label the target consumer may be the younger crowd – while more mature wine drinkers will choose something with a simpler, more traditional wine bottle label. The wine bottles with more noticeable labels may contain a sweeter wine instead of its drier counterpart.

The wine bottle labels of today reflect more of the target demographics to attract the new generation of wine drinkers. We know from advertising that the more colorful and flamboyant the designs are, the more they’ll get our attention if we are unfamiliar with wine drinking. Wine labels may have changed over the centuries but their goal remained the same – to give quality information about the wine in a stylish way.

Keep in mind – just because the label may be a work of art, it doesn’t mean the wine will taste as good as the label looks. Creating a great wine label isn’t an exact science, which is why we see many, many different kinds that try to intrigue us into buying these wine.

If you’re looking for more information on wine bottle labels, you’ve come to the right place.  We’ll be featuring various articles about the different varieties, and I hope you enjoy them.