Wine labels are attracting a lot of attention, so we were delighted to welcome two people with a passion for wine labels to AJS this week.
Expert learns more about wine labels technology
Neil Libby, wine expert and educator, came to get a better understanding of the production processes behind wine labels. Neil has over 37 years’ experience in education, Hospitality and Catering. He recently set up vin-ed, a professionally run company that specialises in wine courses together with tutored wine tasting events. Vin-ed is currently running a series of very successful WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) classes at Highdown Vineyard, Worthing, Sussex. Neil was particularly interested in learning more about the complexities of wine label printing across a number of our presses.
Robert Joseph, noted wine journalist, recently tweeted: ‘Anyone who does not occasionally buy a wine based on its label is missing out. Labels are part of the fun of wine.’ Growers around the world have traditionally paid little attention to their wine labels, relying on grape and reputation to sell their wine. There are wineries that have not changed their wine labels design in over 60 years, as in the case of Château Simone, however others hire designers every year to change it. Wine labels are becoming more playful and inviting in an attempt to make selecting and purchasing wine a less intimidating and more fun experience.
Wine labels competition is launched
Our second visitor of the week was James Graham of UKVINE, a website dedicated to wine grown and produced in the UK. UKVINE contains a lively mix of news & features that touch directly on wine produced in the UK. James came to AJS Labels to discuss the newly launched designs on wine, a competition for labels on English and Welsh wine.
James says: ‘It has long been my belief that the label on a bottle of wine is a key trigger to its purchase or sampling. Wine in England and Wales have some very good, and very poor, examples of label designs.’ design on wine aims to act as a forum to measure and increase the general standards of wine label design for UK-producers. ‘The success of New World wines can be attributed to striking graphics as much as the quality of the product. UKVINE wants to lay down a challenge to UK wine growers: do your labels match up to the best on the market?’
Digital printing – the perfect solution for wine labels
James was very interested in the digital capability at AJS Labels. ’We’ve invested heavily in the last twelve months, very much with the UK wine growers in mind. Our state-of-the-art digital press is ideal for the short label runs that many of the UKs smaller producers require,’ said Director Jayne Scrimgeour. ‘Couple this with our high-spec finishing kit and we can add a whole range of exciting embellishments to the wine label to really make it stand out on the shelf.’
