Raise a Glass to a Few of Our Favorite Wine Labels

Many wineries pay just as much attention to the wine labels as the liquid inside

Some grape growers and wine makers believe the precious liquid inside should speak for itself. But more and more are recognizing the importance of a stunning label design that mirrors their passion for excellent wine.

We pulled together a list of some of our favorite wine labels, featuring wines from California to France and a few spots in between.

Orin Swift’s Abstract Red

The abstract label on Orin Swift’s blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Petite Syrah depicts a conglomeration of faces and figures. The colors and complexity give the viewer a sense of the wine’s complex and bold taste. The designs are so compelling that the winery even sells decorative skate decks and prints with the same images.

Brian Benson Cellars

Wine runs in Brian Benson’s veins. He began learning about the process as a kid working alongside his grandfather and father. Now he has his own successful winery and is involved in every step of the process — down to creating the artwork on his labels. Each label features a colorful splash of abstract art that intrigues the viewer and incites a desire to try the wine.

19 Crimes “Living Label”

A truly forward-thinking line of designs, the wine’s “living labels” feature a historical person, mostly from Australia’s days as a penal colony. Download the app and point your phone at the bottle to hear the story of the featured person. The newest addition? Celebrity Snoop Dogg embodies the ideals of defiance and boldness that the brand espouses.

The Tentacle

As you might imagine, the Tentacle from Eight Arms Cellars features a giant octopus in grayscale on a black bottle. The simple design is intriguing, drawing the eye and creating curiosity in the viewer. The 2013 vintage is a blend of 75% syrah, 15% Grenache, 5% Mourvedre, 5% Counoise. As they say on their website “This one really wraps it’s arms around you!”

Motif

Bold, bright geometric patterns jump out at the viewer from these fine art wine labels. The designs are meant to represent the complex flavors of each wine more fully than can be stated in words or numbers used to describe the wine.

Lazarus Wine

Blind winemakers use the Sensorial Winemaking method to create these Spanish wines. Without sight, their sense of taste and smell are more acute, and they can react to the tiniest changes in the wine throughout the process. The labels sport a Braille design to reflect the uniqueness of the wine’s creators.

Maison Chatou

The labels for the French wine Maison Chatou were designed as part of a student project. To represent the hunt for delicious wine, the designer chose three animals representative of the hunt — a fox, a deer, and a boar. The head of each is sported in a geometric pattern on the bottle with the name of the wine — chardonnay, syrah, and cabernet sauvignon, respectively. Too bad it’s a fictive brand, because the labels sure turned out really cool!

The Tapas Wine Collection

In Spanish, “tapas” means appetizers. It also carries the idea of hanging out with good friends and enjoying a leisurely drink along with those delightful eats. To represent this idea, the labels feature a fun font reminiscent of writing on a chalkboard, like a tapas menu may be found on the wall in a favorite Spanish bar.