Now Please Don’t Judge A Wine By It’s Label

Please remember that I do not advocate buying wine based on what the label looks like. You’ve heard the saying “Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover,” now please don’t judge a wine by it’s label. Buying attractive labels just worsens the lack of wine knowledge in the U.S. Wineries spend millions of dollars on label design. They think that they can fool us into buying labels. Guess what? They are and only we can change that.

It’s up to us to change their thinking. You will fare much better if you do a little research before you go shopping. Ask google. Attend wine tastings, dinners and subscribe to a wine magazine like Wine Enthusiast. Once at the store, ask for their wine expert for help. Many stores do not hire wine experts, so then ask for the manager or owner for help. You might find the owner at the front counter in smaller stores. Do NOT ask the stock people, etc.

You can text or call me whenever you want at 609-364-3477 between 12PM-9PM EST. I can be your own personal wine helper before or even when you get to the store! What do you think about the wine in the label above? It might appear old fashioned looking to some and it might look pretty to others. However, how it will taste is what matters! You have to be willing to do your own research so you can learn how to buy wine with confidence, instead of guessing.

New Discovery

For example, I just found out that Peachy Canyon winery owns Chronic Cellars. Why didn’t they just name it Peach Canyon? That would be respectable. Chronic makes a bunch of silly named wines like purple paradise. What is that supposed to mean? I know that some of these wineries with the cute and silly labels can make good wine. It’s just not how a person should pick a wine. The silly names keep growing such as Layer Cake, Cupcake, Skinny Girl, Walking Dead, Barefoot, Fit Vine, The Velvet Devil and my personal favorite, White Girl. Therefore, we have wine that tastes like cake, makes you skinny or is only meant for skinny women, zombies, smelly feet, fitness wine (oxymoron), Satan and wine for white people. If you had to pick a wine based solely on the label, which of the two below do you think will taste better? Louis Martini is an amazing classic style of Cabernet Sauvignon for the price.

Living Wine Labels (REALLY Don’t Judge A Wine By It’s Label)

19 Crimes has an app that makes the label come to life. Now this could have been a great idea and opportunity for a winery to tell you about what’s in the bottle. WINE! Instead, they chose to put criminals on their label and call it Living Wine labels. You download an app and it looks like the label is talking on your phone, but you are just watching videos. They make the criminal tell a story about himself. And, the criminals are a bunch of unknown people. Who cares!

What’s Really Needed On Labels

What we do need on wine labels are things like grape varieties, percentages, aromas, tasting notes and food pairing recommendations. Also, Europe you have to put some English on your labels if you want to compete in the U.S. Wouldn’t that be cool? Alexandra Lapostolle sums it up with the following wine quote from Karen McNeil’s page a day wine calendar. In other words, don’t judge a wine by its label.

Summary of Now Please Don’t Judge A Wine By It’s Label

These are NOT wines I recommend because they are selling labels, instead of wine. It doesn’t matter what the wine quality is. And calling your wine by a silly name only worsens the problem. I like to take a laid back approach to wine, but some wineries make a mockery out of it with their labels. We only buy these wines because we haven’t learned enough about wines. Unfortunately, Americans buying habits aren’t the best. The only wines that get a free pass to make funny names and labels are zinfandels. That is because they have been doing it for a long time. And, zinfandel is America’s home grown varietal. They just do it for fun, not to coerce you to buy wine based on a label. I highly recommend Alexander Valley Vineyard’s four types seen below. The intention is that you drink them over the course of a weekend. Friday is Temptation, Saturday is Sin Zin, and Sunday is Redemption. And, they added a dessert wine called Salvation.

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Thanks Frank from How To Pick A Wine.