All That Sparkles

A s . s ng p gi ar a kl ck ing pa w its ine of ’s po sity pular diver ity increases, so does the

BY LAURA NESS

igh-end With bubbles’ undeniable houses have always rise in popularity in just the sought to differenti- last five years, new as well as ate their products with established brands are look- packaging evocative of haute ing for ways to set their prod- couture. Perhaps none is bet- ucts apart. ter known for its artistry than In California, there are more Perrier-Jouët, with its hand than 80 producers of sparkling painted Belle Epoque bottles or Champagne (those adorned with anemones who are grandfathered to that evoke the floral aroma use the name on their of the house style. labels include Korbel), and Dom Perignon bottles they’re approaching 10 are so prized that even million cases annually. empty ones are going Unsurprisingly, given the for serious coin on flagrant spending habits eBay. The “Luminous — and power — of Cali- Lite Up” series has a fornians, more bubbles button on the bottom to are consumed there light up the label in the than anywhere else in dark. Empty bottles of the United States: More pretty much any Cham- than 4 million cases each pagne can be found year. Illinois is a close there selling for hun- second, followed by dreds of dollars. New York, Florida, Texas,

Unsworth uses silk screening and foregoes foil wrap on the cage.

52 & MANAGEMENT | Nov - Dec 2016 www.vwmmedia.com Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylva- gone), we point to the outrageous nia, Massachusetts and Ohio. Armand de Brignac Brut Gold In the United Kingdom, spar- “Ace of Spades,” a lavishly gold- kling wine sales for 2016 soared plated Champagne that retails for past the £1 billion mark for the first $35,000 for a 15 L Nebuchadnezzar time, with retail sales up 20% and — they’re drinking more of it, and direct sales up more than 50% by the options for presentation will volume. It’s fair to say that spar- continue to multiply along with the kling is the hottest thing next to cli- choice of what’s inside. mate change. Italy has scored a winner with SINGLE SERVINGS MULTIPLY Prosecco, as it now accounts for more than half the sparkling retail Nowhere is packaging more market in the United Kingdom critical than in selling sparkling: alone. Meanwhile, the United King- it helps communicate the mes- dom’s own sparkling efforts just sage of the wine inside. Accord- foiled French judges in a compe- ing to the Wine Market Council’s tition where an English sparkling 2016 research, when women were called Nyetimber bested classic asked about labels, almost half pre- French Champagne entries. And the ferred “traditional/classic/sophis- elite French Champagne house Tait- ticated” designs, although nearly tinger is in the process of setting up 40% also responded well to “fun production in the United Kingdom. and fanciful.” With women making more pur- Classic, tasteful labels still chasing decisions (more than 80% rule the category (think Roederer, of wine purchases are made by Mumm, Schramsberg), although them), it’s no wonder Prosecco tops silkscreen, etching and full bottle the list as the fastest-growing wine wraps are becoming more popular. segment in the United States as Size matters. And tiny bottles well, with an increase of nearly 35% of bubbles like the 187 mL Mosca- in 2015 over 2014. Nearly a third of to or Brut Cuvee sparklers from those purchasing Prosecco last year Barefoot can be found at Safeway did so for the first time, having not or on Amazon, along with Chan- previously bought sparkling. Could it don’s mini classic brut and prove the “gateway wine” to high- offerings. Like Korbel’s stylish er-end sparkling, even Champagne? minis, they make great wedding Regardless of how consum- favors. Coppola’s Sofia, an effer- ers are getting their bubbles (in vescent Blanc de Blancs, comes splits, cans, cleverly wrapped in stylish pink 187 mL cans that bottles, works of art that remain can be had as a four-pack in a dec- valuable long after the liquid is orative pink box. Then there’s Cangria, from the O’Neill Vineyard in California's Cen- tral Valley, whose red and white Sangria options come in eye candy AT A GLANCE cans. The website appeals to those who want to kick tradition squarely + is more between the teeth with its #Start- popular than ever. Something message, which reads: “The routine. What’s ‘expected.’ Brands are employing + The path chosen for you. The fifth innovative packaging to night in, in a row. Drinking beer, stand out. again. That Friday night you had + Single-serve packages, last week and the week before and full wraps and alternative the week before that you’re having closures abound. tonight, again. The job you hate. + Expressing what’s in the The friends who bring you down. bottle is key. The haters. Bullies and bitches. The low-risk life. The traps and status quo. Screw ’em all. Life can be way www.vwmmedia.com Nov - Dec 2016 | VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 53 more awesome than that. So grab a can or 10 and Start Something.” One brand that might not appeal to women is Mancan, carbonated white “wine with fizz” available in 375 mL cans on Amazon. It’s emblazoned with the image of a dog and a firehouse. Does sparkling in cans have a future?

THE FULL WRAP One of the dominant brands on supermarket shelves, Chandon, was quick to jump on the full-sleeve wrap, employing digitally printed heat-shrink sleeves that envelop the entire bottle. Two designs appeared on store shelves in June called Limited Edition American Summer, featuring a red, white and blue stripe design for the brut and a Eye-catching, full-sleeve wraps are popular for limited-edition bottlings. red, white and pink version for the rosé. The bottles immerse in ice in the United States, Korbel has bel are done in tradi- buckets with no muss, no fuss. been making its bubbly for 130 tional bottles with labels, but every Arguably the oldest continu- years according to the traditional once in a while, a special occasion ously producing Champagne house méthode Champenoise. Most Kor- brings out a full sleeve wrap, as

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54 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | Nov - Dec 2016 www.vwmmedia.com was the case this summer, when spent 20 years at Roederer in allegedly created the first blended the blue and white bottle with a Anderson Valley, to craft the win- Champagne, “Come quickly! I am sky full of stars debuted on grocery ery’s and tasting the stars!” store shelves. sparklers in the true méthode Perhaps one of the formerly Champenoise. best-kept secrets in the sparkling SIMPLE ELEGANCE IN LABELS “When designing our sparkling world is Rack & Riddle. It produces wine package, the family’s main custom sparklings of every hue for Chloe, one of several Wine goal was to create a timeless, cur- many a winery: If it tastes really Group brands, sources and bottles rent feel that would match the good, and is priced somewhere its hot-selling Prosecco in Italy, elegance in the bottle. Creating a between $25 and $45 per bottle, it setting it off in a unique bottle cohesive and homogenous brand- probably came from there. with a distinctive black bow on ing experience for our customer is It’s planning to launch its own the label. Says Belinda Harcombe, of upmost importance. The heavy brand, 6 Bar, a nod to the “6 bar” associate brand manager for bottle, thin, dark label and seal that of pressure in a bottle of sparkling Chloe, “The Chloe design portrays drops from the foil all combine to wine. It created an eye-catching all that’s elegant and timeless. create an experience that’s distinct- label with large, colorful typography The memorable black ribbon motif ly Caraccioli.” and a bit of a twist. delivers a strong presence on the General Manager Mark Garaven- shelf, and ensures high consumer ta says of the large scannable bar- recall. Chloe is the embodiment of code on the front label, “There are classic beauty, bottled.” 12 fun, ‘secret’ messages in every case of 6 Bar wine.” It was created with brokers, retailers and restaura- teurs in mind, with a resale price of between $10.99 and $12.99. One of Rack & Riddle’s poster children is Breathless, a brand cre- ated by the three Faust sisters, who are part of the Rack & Riddle team. Their label, which was awarded Most Whimsical Wine Label at the 2014 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, actually took a while to bring to fruition. Cynthia Faust shares her story of dealing with designers here. She was glad she didn’t hold her breath: “Whether or not you’re creative, choosing designers to get all your assets created and branded is abso- lutely vital. We went to a couple designers, and the mockups they came back with were all so far off Caraccioli Cellars’ packaging creates a the mark, it wasn’t even close to timeless feel. what we were thinking.” Eventually, they found a great Steorra is Joe Wagner’s first firm to work with: 4Parts Design, sparkling venture, and to present out of Sausalito. Faust says if this creamy lemon and lime sherbet- you don’t like what you’re seeing like beverage crafted from Russian from the designer you’re working River Valley Chardonnay and Pinot with, don’t settle: It’s too impor- Noir, he chose a tasteful embossed tant. “Look at beautiful labels you label and a box subtly silkscreened admire and figure out who owns The elegant black bow on Chloe Prosec- with stars and embossed with a the brand. Oftentimes, they’ll share co bottles creates high consumer recall. copper metallic logo. the name of the designer.” The name “Steorra” comes Travis Pollard of Paragon Label, Scott Caraccioli of Caraccioli Cel- from an Old English word for star: who prints the Breathless label for lars in the Santa Lucia Highlands It’s a nice touch, and a nod to that the Faust sisters, credits Rack & hired a serious sparkling expert, famous quote often attributed to Riddle with making sparkling wine Frenchman Michel Salgues, who the venerable Dom Perignon, who more accessible to a broader market www.vwmmedia.com Nov - Dec 2016 | VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 55 For smaller producers (less than take the plunge and make méthode 5,000 cases), Pollard recommends Champenoise sparkling for the turn digital , which consumes of the century (remember Y2K?), less resources during setup — about she delivered each bottle with an 50 to 200 feet of to print original canvas painting glued to it. digital vs. 1,000 to 2,000 feet Going forward, as she expanded required during setup on a flexo- her sparkling line into citron and graphic or offset printer. You can pomegranate, Gary created hand then use foil stamping to achieve painted labels to reflect the spirit of the desired effect. each flavor.

BEYOND THE LABEL Rack & Riddle’s Breathless labels are Screen printing, also called silk- designed by 4Parts Design in Sausalito. screening or glass printing, is the best way to ditch the ice bucket of consumers. “They’re enabling worries and create a look that goes to extend their portfolios to beyond the label. The process is include sparkling and, at the same achieved using Applied Ceramic time, their brands,” he says. Labels (ACL), which are actually Paragon Label is based in Peta- baked into the surface of the glass, luma, Calif., and runs five Flexo creating a durable look that really presses, two HP digital presses, a stands out on store shelves and one-of-a-kind laser-cutting system has none of the downsides of print- that’s proving highly popular with ed labels. the growing spirits brands, as well Waterloo Container out of New as state-of-the-art foil and emboss- York offers many pressure-rated ing presses. glass options for sparkling and One of its largest sparkling cus- recently announced state-of-the-art tomers is Iron Horse, for whom glass printing. Employing a lead- Paragon produces labels using ing-edge Servo technology that’s many different processes, including much faster and more accurate sculptured embossing, metallic ink than manual registration methods, and prismatic foils. it offers unparalleled accuracy with Embossing involves creating a a single pass. Eight vibrant colors die of metal, into which the design can be printed at once, allowing is etched with a dremel tool. Paul designers to go wild with creativ- De Crevel of De Crevel Stamping ity. Art can be wrapped complete- & Embossing Dies in Napa is Para- ly around the bottle and UV cured gon’s go-to creator for dies: He did inks offer exceptional design pos- the image of the embossed horse sibility and durability. Waterloo also that appears on Iron Horse labels. offers the unique ability to reverse Almost all the Iron Horse labels print, creating a design that’s vis- use metallic ink, which are done Iron Horse’s Silver Moon label uses the ible inside the bottle as the bever- using a flexographic or offset print- prismatic method of laser etching on a age is poured. er, due to the high volumes being prismatic foil, which catches the light Bobbi Stebbins, sales and mar- printed. Examples include the and has the appearance of a hologram. keting project leader at Waterloo, Cuvee 50, imprinted in silver with says, “Printed bottles replace a football leather-like embossed Of upmost importance for spar- many of the steps involved with background, and the flashy, bright kling wine labels, says Pollard, is the paper labeling, reducing labor orange with gold imprint of the ability to resist water in the dreaded costs and time, and you only pur- 2012 Summer’s Cuvée, done with ice bucket. He recommends using chase the bottles you’ll actually a prismatic foil called “Pillars of “Ever Opaque” label stock from use. Any breakage will not affect Light” for a look as blinding as a hot Wausau Coated Products. other bottles in the case and bot- summer afternoon on the beach. In the case of Carmody McK- tles are delivered to the customer, Iron Horse’s Silver Moon label night, on the far west side of Paso ready to fill.” uses the prismatic method of Robles, every label starts as a It recently completed a bottle laser etching on a prismatic foil, painting by renowned artist and example (see photo next column), which catches the light and has the TV actor, Gary Conway. When his using its W25 flat-bottomed pres- appearance of a hologram. daughter, Kathleen, decided to sure bottle, which is rated for up to

56 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | Nov - Dec 2016 www.vwmmedia.com five volumes of pressure. No set up Monvera Glass Décor in Rich- Monvera specializes in both neck charges apply for bottle styles it’s mond, Calif., specializes in ACL printing and shoulder printing: The already tooled, which includes 55 and UV screen printing. The lat- former lets you skip the foil/cap- of its popular inventory items. ter enables four-color process sule and the latter really creates designs to be reproduced with a dramatic look, as shown in the photographic quality, so photos, Lichen Estate sparkling . Cart- gradients and halftones can be er Estate out of Temecula employs directly printed on bottles instead silk screening, including precious of on paper labels. Because UV metal inks, on all of its sparkling inks are cured using UV lamps, UV wines for a handsome and distin- printing offers a very low carbon guished finish. Caitriona Anderson, footprint, too. vice president of sales and market- Screen printing allows up to ing for Monvera, says screen print- six colors to be applied directly to ing is a great way to differentiate glass, from neck to bottom, for high-end and reserve wines and a 360-degree storytelling option. also help value wines stand out

Waterloo’s St. Laurent example uses a W25 flat-bottomed pressure bottle, which is rated for up to five volumes of Monvera Glass Décor specializes in silk screening, shown here on Carter Estate and pressure. Lichen Estate sparklings.

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58 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | Nov - Dec 2016 www.vwmmedia.com Boisset admits it all started with Boisset also recently released toire” Champagne ($50) is adorned 1969, the year of his birth. He says, the very first French Champagne with an eagle symbolizing America, “No. 69 — does it really need expla- bottled and labeled by a California strength and victory. For Boisset, nation? It’s the year mankind went winery. Buena Vista Winery “La Vic- “It also celebrates the triumph of collaboration between California and Champagne.”

GOING SIMPLER, GREENER AND LEANER Going from the superlative to the simple, winemaker Denis Hoey of Odonata, based in Santa Lucia Highlands, decided to forego all the hoopla and expense of cork and wire, plus the litter of capsules and foil. Instead, he simply bottle caps each one. He’s not worried about shelf appeal, as he mostly sells DTC out of his two tasting rooms. A client of his, Stephanie McFarland of McFarland Wines, chose the same closure for her newly released sparkling , a 2014 Blanc de Blanc. Each bottling in JCB’s lineup of sparkling wines is a limited edition.

to the moon! It’s a symbol of expres- sion, freedom, creativity, intellectual revolution, artistry and refinement. Of course, No. 69 is also a Pinot Noir Brut Rosé that entwines mas- culinity and femininity.” The JCB No.13 Crémant de Bourgogne Sparkling Rosé, $75, is 50,000 served in a beautifully curved bottle with grapevines molded right into square feet of the base. The shape is completely unique to the JCB Sparkling Collec- Stainless Steel tion and the bright -rose foil sets it off. Adorned with a gorgeous metal- lic emerald green infinity symbol, the JCB Infinity Crémant de Bour- Letina tanks, gogne Sparkling Brut ($65) is the first organic sparkling wine in the sanitary valves entire Boisset collection. Boisset says the infinity symbol speaks to and fittings. the magnetic, cosmic and telluric forces that went into the creation of this wine. At the top of the pyramid is the JCB #50 Crémant de Bour- gogne Sparkling Brut ($200), cre- ated in celebration of JCB’s sister Nathalie’s 50th birthday — and per- fectly timed with the celebration of Super Bowl 50. It comes in a sleek, black box with dramatic gold-foil stamping. St. Patrick’s of Texas • StPats.com www.vwmmedia.com Nov - Dec 2016 | VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 59 Losing the foil over the top (1927). The exquisite bottle of the cork cage is also catch- sports an emblem depicting the ing on with larger producers, seasons of the grapevine mold- too. New Mexico’s Gruet went ed right into it for a custom look this route with its “Sauvage” that’s hard to beat. Blanc de Blanc, emphasizing No matter how fancy the the raw nature of the product. packaging may be, you can A Canadian brand, Unsworth always elect to make a spe- Vineyards, also opted for cial bottle even more precious. spending money on silk Engraved Letter in Agoura Hills, screening its artwork, eschew- Calif., specializes in gold and sil- ing the foil wrap on the cork ver etching of its large selection cage. Its Charme d L’ile is done of premium Champagnes with in an elegant frosted white your original artwork — imagi- bottle, adorned with artwork nation is your only limit. created by Hired Guns Creative out of British Columbia. Who Laura Ness, aka “Her Vine- needs foil? Ness,” is a wine journalist and Marty Mathis of Kathryn Ken- critic who judges a variety of nedy (Santa Cruz Mountains) wine competitions and writes also opted out of the foil clo- regularly for consumer and sure, putting a small sticker on trade publications, including the top of the cap of his 2004 WineOh.TV. Cuvee Twenty Seven Blanc McFarland Wines’ 2014 Blanc de Blanc uses a de Blanc, a nod to his mother, Comments? Please e-mail us at bottle cap closure. Kathryn Kennedy’s, birth year [email protected].

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