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52 WINES&VINES October 2016 BOTTLES &LABELS W hile not as bad as a corked wine, having a wine label slip off, lift at the corners or wrinkle after the bottle has spent some time in an ice bucket can detract from a consumer's experience with a wine brand. That particular risk has become increas- ingly rare, however, as more wineries invest in label stocks that feature special liners, adhesives and reinforced materials to ensure labels stay in place, remain legible and don't wrinkle while submerged in an ice bucket or when exposed to wet, damp conditions dur- ing bottling or shipping. Wet-strength materials have been common in the industry for more a decade, but suppliers are now offering label materials that can spend all day in an ice bucket and still look perfect. Trysk Print Solutions is a Seattle-based label provider that worked with paper manufacturer Wausau Coated Products in Wausau, Wis., to create a stronger wet-strength label. Stephan Martinez, Trysk founder and CEO, said he had been hearing complaints about wet-strength labels that were still failing, especially on sparkling wine bottles. "What really starts the ball rolling on defects is water on the inside of the label," he told Wines & Vines. Martinez said he went to Wausua and pushed them to develop something even stronger for the wine industry. "We told them, 'If you give us something better, we'll sell the lights out of it,'" he said. "The first several years was pushing them, letting them know there's a need there." That led to four years of research and trials as the company perfected a proprietary process to treat the label material to be water resistant and create an adhesive known as Aqua Loc 100. Trysk had the license to be the sole supplier for six months and dubbed the new material Ice Breaker. Martinez said it's not a new paper but a new lamination process that can make any material impervious to water. "It's everything we hoped it would be, and I'm serious that's pretty rare for a project that took so long," he said. "We are all collectively very proud of it." Wausau Coated now sells the same mate- rial under the Ever Opaque brand, and a few other label suppliers sell the material under different brands. A few other label printers also have developed their own brands of different wet-strength label materials by working with manufacturers. Run the bucket test Before selecting any material, conducting some trials is a good way to evaluate the different wet-strength materials on the mar- ket. "One of the things people still need to remember is it's still a paper label going on glass," said Travis Pollard, vice president of sales and marketing for the printer Paragon Label in Petaluma, Calif. Pollard recommended wineries conduct a simple ice bucket trial to determine what they're looking for when it comes to wet strength. Place the label sample on a bottle and submerge it in a 50-50 mix of water and ice and watch how it performs over 15 minutes, 45 minutes and longer. Some labels can start to weaken over longer stretches of time, while others may change slightly in appearance while leaving all the label information intact. For most products, maintaining label integrity for an hour or so should be sufficient when one considers these are mainly going on bottles of white and rosé wines. "If you're a consumer and you opened a white wine or rosé and it's not finished in 45 minutes, you're not doing your job as a con- sumer," Pollard quipped. Dan Welty is the digital print manager for Multi Color Label, which previously had been serving the wine industry as Collotype Label. He PRODUCT FOCUS Wet-Strength Labels New materials and adhesives help wineries ensure their labels stay intact, in place and look great during the 'ice bucket challenge' By Andrew Adams The creator of the above label, Avery Dennison, says wet strength starts with the adhesive.