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58 WINES&VINES May 2016 PACKAGING Promote your wines to leading Zinfandel enthusiasts and extend your winery's relationship in the market. Join Us! We are champions of Zinfandel— America's Heritage Wine Become part of our proud legacy zinfandel.org • 530-274-4900 Zinfandel Advocates & Producers is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. ZAP is dedicated to advancing public knowledge of and appreciation for American Zinfandel and its unique place in our culture and history. You know how good your Zinfandel is... RESIN MEDALLIONS MARRY WITH GLASS OR PET BOTTLES D esigners and winemakers often laud the value of tactile labels, and wineries willing to pay the price can order custom glass molds for cartouches (pronounced car-TEWSH-s) to incorpo- rate on their high-end vintages. Union- Pack now offers a flexible option to add texture to more standard bottles. These 3D medallions made from resin are ap- plied during the bottling process and are available even for small runs. After application, the SealLux medallions be- come an integral part of the bottle, although consumers might be tempted to peel them off and collect them—don't try this if you value your fingernails, though! They can be used on either glass or PET bottles. Wendy Rose, co-founder and owner of UnionPack, talked pricing and technical details with Wines & Vines. For cartouches, "Many glass companies have high purchas- ing minimums and require molds to be made, which is very expensive and time consuming. We do not require any minimums and can produce our cartouche-style medallions for pennies on the dollar," she said. According to Erica Harrop, president of Napa's Global Package, which supplies high-end bottles, a custom mold for a glass bottle "can be done for as little as $8,000. We are doing it more often now with our own custom shapes. Case price is the same as for plain glass with many of our bottles," she said. In contrast, "The SealLux medallion price is based on quantity, size and color requirements of the medallion. Each me- dallion is custom-made to fulfill customer specifications. There is a 1,000-piece minimum for volume pricing. However, for very special projects, we can produce as few as 25," Rose said. Of course, quantity affects pricing, which drops significantly based on high-volume orders. "We always propose the volume that the customer requested, and the next two volume discount breaks up." UnionPack has a team to walk clients through the entire process from understand- ing the material and application to realization of graphics drafts and layouts. "Prior to pro- duction, we send high-quality artwork proofs for final design approval. We do full physical samples for a small fee; these are re-applied to the first order," Rose explained. "Artwork approval takes anywhere from 48 hours to a week (depending on com- plexity and color-matching requirements). Our medallions are produced in Italy; production takes seven to 14 days. We can have the final product shipped to the customer within two to three weeks," she said. The cartouches are small and light, and they generally can be overnighted to the winery in case of urgent need. The cartouches can be packaged on paper sheets for hand application or on pressure-sensitive (PS) tapes for high- speed bottling lines. "The PS tape typi- cally requires an additional 'necker' label- ing arm, and (the cartouches) are applied during the labeling phase," Rose said. Although the process is relatively new, "We have worked with many mobile bot- tling lines and custom-crush facilities throughout the country. We always have our technician do a site visit to make sure the customer's bottling line can accommodate the PS tape application," Rose said. "We provide technical support during bottling and can send our quality technician to assist with setup of the ap- plication to assure a smooth bottling." The cartouches do not adversely affect bottle recycling: They are burned off the glass the same way any other residual materials are when glass is melted. —Jane Firstenfeld A R C H I T E C T U R E D E S I G N P L A N N I N G M A N A G E M E N T 7 0 7 . 9 3 5 . 7 9 4 4 www.strataap.com 1_6 Ad_2015.indd 1 11/5/2015 10:54:11 AM St. Supery's brandy bottle with medallion earned the Most Innovative Package award at the Wines & Vines Packaging Conference held in August 2015. MIMI ZYCHERMAN