Beautiful Wine Labels: Should Prime Cellars Stop Using Paper?
Within the wine labeling industry, screen printed labels or applied ceramic labels (ACL) take up only a small slice of the overall pie. While paperless bottle labeling techniques have not yet been widely adopted in the US, many of the paper Label designs are really perfect for ACL printing. Prime Cellars is an example of a winery that prints its Reserva wines, but uses paper labels for the rest. We have some ideas on why you should stop using paper everybody of your labels.
Prime Cellars 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is paper-labeled, but has excellent out of paper potential. The label uses a light gray paper with a wide stripe of black ink on the front. The word “PRIME” is visible in the middle of the black ink, and “Napa Valley” appears in red below that. The fact that red is sparsely used gives the paper label a monochrome look, and the hard edges of the paper feel out of place in an otherwise striking design.
On the contrary, Prime Cellars chose to differentiate their 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon reservation by using screen printed labels, and the benefits are numerous. First, the color of the paperless label is much more shocking. The ink stain on the front is now bright red on the silkscreened bottle. The extra color draws attention and intensifies the brand. Second, because the color red is printed directly on the glass rather than on the paper, the color appears to have been hand painted onto the surface of the bottle, bringing a real sense of synergy to the package. Third, the silk-screened labels are baked onto the surface of the glass, so the Prime Cellars brand literally becomes part of the bottle. While a paper label can easily be scratched, torn or peeled, Prime’s screen printed labels are as durable as the bottle itself. Finally, in this economy, it is important that your products are noticed. Choosing the least common labeling technique can help capture the consumer’s attention. On shelves full of paper labels, the unique look of a paperless bottle is likely to help the wines stand out from the crowd.