What Makes a Good Wine Label?

While a good wine should hold its own regardless of the bottle it comes in, there is an undeniable pressure on a winemaker to create a label that pleases the eye as much as the product within pleases the palate. What makes a wine label good? It needs to stand out on the shelf and carry all the relevant information, and it needs to fit in among other wines of its region.

Key Takeaways:

• First and foremost, a label must meet strict legal standards. Details like alcohol content, appellations, warning messages and varietal identification are among the things that must appear on any domestic wine label.
• I’m no different than anyone else. When I stand in front of a wall of wine, I look for something that jumps out. Something that makes me want to grab the bottle for a closer look.
• The vast majority of labels are adequate, but the others fall into one of three categories—the good, the bad and the ugly.

“We live in a visual age. And wine, a product that appeals principally to the senses of taste and smell, must rely on its one purely visual component—the label—to attract consumers.”

http://www.winemag.com/2017/04/27/what-makes-a-good-wine-label/