CorkSavvy

It is no mistake that the wine that you adore also has a wine label that is an exceptional piece of art. Today, renowned American artists are being commissioned by wineries to create extraordinary wine labels. An artist and former Professor of Art and Art History at Sonoma State University, Bob Nugent, has been involved in the design of over 100 wine labels. Through his work with the Benziger Winery and Joe Benziger and the Imagery Estate Winery in Glen Ellen, CA he has brought together talented and recognized artists to create exciting art to be used on wine labels. Contributing artists include: Sol LeWitt of Connecticut, Terry Winters of New York, William Wiley of California, and Judy Pfaff of New York to name a few. Bob Nugent says: “In developing the Artist Collection program, the winery has built the largest and one of the most impressive original wine label art collections in the world.” Today the collection includes over 200 labels on display in the Imagery Winery tasting rooms.

American wine labels evolved as the American wine industry expanded. Caldewey Design, a graphic design company in Napa, CA has been in the forefront of wine label design. The company has designed labels for some of the most well recognized wineries in the United States including: Groth, Beringer, Stag’s Leap, and Chalk Hill.  The Frog’s Leap wine label was awarded The Design of Excellence Award from the American Institute of Graphic Designers and the label is part of a permanent collection in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.  For those visiting the Smithsonian there is a display entitled “Colonna FARRELL Wine Label Collection, 1975-1997” collected from the archives of CF Napa (formerly  called Colonna Farrell). CF Napa was selected for this exhibit due to both its extensive archives and because the company’s history paralleled the development of California wine packaging. The company was comprised of three Napa Valley designers, Jeffrey Caldewey, John Farrell, and Ralph Colonna. Each of the men was involved individually in the design of wine labels and in the mid 1970’s they joined together. The reputation of these talented designers grew and they can be credited with designing some of the wine industry’s dominant wineries. The design of the early labels reflected the traditional French labels in order to bolster the credibility of California wines. In the next decade, the late 1970’s and 1980’s, the concern was no longer credibility, but individuality because now the competition was among other California wineries. With the use of computers and sophisticated printing technology, wine labels continued to evolve.

Further documentation of the development of the wine label is graphically displayed in a book entitled “ICON: Art of the Wine Label" a collaboration of Caldewey Design and Chuck House Design of Santa Rosa, CA which chronicles the design process of over 100 wine labels. This hardback book is in full color and shows the development of the wine label as it intertwines art with marketing expertise to create a unique art form.

With your next bottle of wine, take the time to appreciate the design of the wine label and while you are at it, snap a picture on your phone and email it to mycellar@corksavvy.com to add to your free CorkSavvy online wine journal and share with your friends on Facebook.