Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/573907
October 2015 WINES&VINES 47 BOTTLES &LABELS ture, inviting consumers to pick it up off the shelf. Although Wagner employs an in-house manager of packaging, he said, "I've always found it enter- taining to watch the changes." He advised other wineries to keep their eyes open. "What's old will be new again," he said. "Control as much as possible in your packaging." Designers get their digs in Moderated by Andrew Rice, cre- ative director of Trinchero Family Estates and its 300-plus SKUs, a panel of top wine package design- ers followed Wagner, starting with Auston, who'd been instrumental in the Meiomi package. How does the design process work? It starts, Auston said, with the price point of the product. For the priciest brands, cast metal la- bels or cartouches from Apholos in Argentina are gaining in popularity. For less expensive brands, digitally printed screwcaps are effective and delivered within days. Jim Moon said he begins the design process by learning the wine's story. He asks clients to fill him in with as much of the back- story as possible, adding: "I don't care how trite it is." He lauded screwcaps. "They are wonderful, and now available with color- saturated foils. Bright colors and design are vital. "Typically a pack- age has one to five seconds to get attention on a shelf." Jeff Hester of Cult Partners re- minded the audience to mind their timelines. "It takes a long time to innovate and test" a new package, he cautioned. Thinking inside the bottle, Aus- ton displayed SGP/Saint Gobain's intriguing and internally em- bossed bottles (read more on page 42). Although when full they don't look dramatically dif- ferent than a standard bottle, as the wine is poured, it displays its interior, tactile "bubbles." Custom molds can be a diffi- cult sell in the wine industry. Hes- ter noted that custom molds require more cost and longer time- lines, although manufacturers have started introducing more options that may be stored and displayed in standard formats, including a square-shouldered 750ml bottle used by Tall Dark Stranger, an Argentine Malbec. Labels, on the other hand, are open for innovation. Auston men- tioned a leather label for Brassas Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec from Napa's Palmaz Vineyards. The leather "smells great," he said, and reflects the owners' Argentine ori- gins. The hides for the labels are hand-selected, as reflected in the limited production (200 cases), wine club exclusivity and bottle price (more than $100). Andrew Rice, creative director of Trinchero Family Estates (at podium), moder- ates a panel of designers including Tony Auston, Jim Moon and Jeff Hester. —continued from page 46