Hi Damien,

I ran the back label copy issue past my personal focus group (sister & brother-in-law) over the weekend. It was done in a somewhat scientific manner as they did not know why I was asking or where I was headed with the questions.

While they don’t make wine a hobby, they are regular wine drinkers and consciously note their preferences to style, varietal and sometimes even country/region. While they don’t maintain a “cellar” they routinely buy wine to maintain a 3-4 case inventory in the house that is made up of about 60% daily drinkers $14-$19, 30% “better meal” wines in the $20s and a few special bottles beyond that. They read no wine mags and their store selections are usually based on price point/region (e.g. French chard at $19 vs. Cali at $19), store recommendation and occasionally an exploration into a different price point/region/varietal for fun.

Their thoughts on the back label:
Flavor descriptors are definitely welcome and do not reduce the wine perceived quality or status. Descriptors would not affect whether they chose a bottle or not.
While they found food pairing interesting, they stated it would reduce the perceived quality and status of the wine. They would be less likely to buy a wine with food pairings than an equally priced bottle without them. The interest probably stems from the fact that they cook from recipes quite a bit and most include a wine pairing.
Details regarding winemaking beyond the most basic (e.g. Oak, No Oak, etc) were found to be excessive and were ignored.
Information regarding the winery, winemaker, history of the dirt, etc. was interesting and desirable and might cause them to pick between two equal priced wines.
Hope this is helpful.

“Government warning: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery and may cause health problems.”

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is real, but complete abstinence from alcohol is hardly the only permissible response. In Immoderate America, it seems it’s always got to be all or nothing.

Anyone who doesn’t realize that wine will “impair your ability to drive…” should not be drinking wine at all, and probably shouldn’t be allowed out on the streets without a leash.

I’d love to write a label that worked the same way, introducing a consumer to a region, maybe even asking a few leading questions that spark a train of thought. I leave well run exhibits wanting to learn more. I wonder if it’s possible to find a voice that can speak in an encouraging tone – i.e. one that encourages the consumer to try not only this wine but others from the region, as opposed to a pure sales and marketing push.

Same with “pairing” suggestions. What I really want is a note that tells me that this wine’s characteristics make it suitable to be drunk in certain ways (alone, ice cold, with fatty red meats, with spicy foods, etc.).

This needn’t be off-putting – independents and contrarians should be proud to ignore this info!

I really do find style notes and drinking notes helpful when I’m in the wine shop, both on expensive and on inexpensive wines.

And I definitely don’t need to know about brix.

Additives would be nice. Natural yeast or designer yeast. Sulfites. Wood chips. You know, the things that let us see how much the wine has been worked on.

However, this really is only applicable to informing the customer of percentages of each grape.

When it comes to the actual grape names, it should be easy to disclose that info.

Tasting notes always make me happy, because unless you are a wine buff you don’t know what the difference is between one wine from the French Rhone Valley and another.

Pairings on the other hand do tend to back a wine into a corner. Any decent wine store clerk should be able to recommend a wine to pair with your dinner.

As far as the organic and allergen info, I think its a good idea, because I don’t like doing the research to tell my customers that info.

I for sure like knowing the grape varietals and percentages in blends, and you don’t always find this info on labels. Which I just don’t get. I find it so darned annoying when this info is nowhere to be found ON the wine label itself, or even online when you go to the producer’s website. I for one want to know what’s in a blend I’m drinking, as it helps me know what other kinds of blends I’d like to try!

There are minimum requirements for informaton, some of which are at present insufficient (see my comments above). Beyond that, there is information that many of us would like to see, and certainly ought to be optional.

Listing clones of PN seems like a waste to me, for example, but it is truthful so it ought to be optional for the winery. There are all kinds and types of truthful information for which there is simply no room on wine labels, but a winery certainly should be able to tell the truth.

For the most part, a winery needs to sell its wine to stay in business. And since a winery can make several wines (at least here in California), it can appeal to different segments of the market with different choices. But it should pay attention to what their customers want, both in the bottle and on the label.