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30 WINES&VINES October 2018 PACKAGING world of wine. The "Cigare Volant" meme has actually been quite pow- erful, even infiltrating popular cul- ture, showing up as the name of a snooty French restaurant for which the character Frasier Crane could never obtain a reservation. We've riffed endlessly on the whole "Cigare" theme and for a while even packed the bottles in a sort of oversize Cigare box, re- plete with faux-governmental warnings ("Will lead to disinhibi- tory behavior") and a citation that it was bottled in La Repub- lica Doonimicana. A brilliant label designer, Chuck House (responsible for the Cigare label), taught me that a wine label is your opportunity to tell your cus- tomers what they can likely expect from what's inside the bottle, set their expectations as far as style, quality, price, etc. You don't want to create a situation of cognitive dis- sonance where the package prom- ises something that the wine can't deliver. Maybe I'm overstating it a bit, but your wine label is something like a real opportunity to potentially bond with your customer, to create a sort of mini-affinity group. The customer identifies with the person who he or she imagines appreciates this sort of wine. I don't know which particular label or labels earned me the repu- tation as a contrarian "rebel" or anti-authoritarian, but for what- ever reason, for quite some time, at the conclusion of winemaker dinners I would often be ap- proached by fans of our wine who would either proffer me the secret Libertarian handshake, imagining that I had to be one of them, or alternately, lay a joint on me, imag- ining that I likewise shared a com- mon interest in weed. "So, I understand that you're crazy," I would sometimes be told. Here is the utterly iconic "Car- dinal Zin" label (Figure 3) de- signed by Ralph Steadman, which is quite brilliant, and there's no question at all that it was the label that really made this wine success- ful. The essence of the label is of course the visual pun on the dual meanings of the word "Cardinal." I believe that somehow Ralph ac- cidentally (or not) hit on a reso- nant chord with Zinfandel drinkers, at least the ones that I've had oc- casion to meet attending ZAP tast- ings for many years. Definitely a more disinhibited wine consumer than, say, your buttoned-down Bor- deaux drinker. Definitely like to party, if you will; this label spoke to them. Obviously, Ralph is a ge- nius illustrator, but working with him has had its challenges. Ralph does not take direction well. If you tell him, "Ralph, please do X," the only certain result will be that he will do Not-X. I would just tell him the dimensions of the label and perhaps the name of the wine. On the subject of critters, we've had just a few on our labels in the past — a dog and a cat on the Ca' del Solo labels — but in general, I've tried to make a pretty con- scious effort to avoid critter labels whenever possible. They have be- come rather clichéd, to say the least. It is therefore a bit ironic that one of our most recent packages, La Bulle-Moose de Cigare, features, well, a moose, which seems to be, in fact, a critter. But, the reality is that when we lined it up side by side with a bunch of other potential label designs, the darn pink moose really stood out on the shelf. This would seem to not necessarily be a terrible thing, but we shall see. Now I think of myself not as the Rhône Ranger anymore, but rather as Tonto — I, who truly know noth- ing about the wine business. The number of factors that bear on the success of a particular brand is now nothing short of staggering. I am sorry to say that sometimes the greatest label design in the world won't help at all if the market, in its infinite perversity, just doesn't want your magnificent wine. I'd like to share with you some of what I think of as the most interesting labels we've done, some of which have worked well, others less well. This is a series of labels designed by the very talented, mononomial Bascove. This was for a series of oddball Italian wines we imported called "Il Circo." A sort of night at the circus, each one of these labels represented a slightly circus-freaky, or at least largely unknown, Italian grape variety. (Here, I was trying to use the label to get out in front of the problem of the non-recogni- tion of these somewhat obscure varieties, to help facilitate the be- ginning of a conversation.) At- tempting to sell wines made from these sort of oddball varieties years ago was in fact a sort of death-de- fying kind of feat in and of itself. My favorite is "La Violetta," the tattooed lady. (Figure 4) This was a gesture to try to represent or ex- teriorize the essence of the wine itself on the label. Uva di Troia, a grape grown in Puglia, has the most particular perfume of violets, some- times said to be a bit obvious or even tawdry, but that's Violetta. My very favorite Bonny Doon label, done for us by the Canadian illustrator Gary Taxali, was created for a wine we made for our wine club from the very obscure grape Freisa. (Figure 5) We juxtaposed these two striking images side by side, defi- nitely creating a bit of dramatic ten- sion. Somewhere we had tracked down quotes from Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, writing about how they really felt about the Freisa grape. "Immensely appetizing!" said Figure 2: Le Cigare Volant label, referencing Châteauneuf's flying-saucer legislation. Figure 3 Cardinal Zin label, designed by Ralph Steadman.