Posted from CellarTracker
BTW, what’s the deal with French wine labels? It’s like where design goes to die. I never see any art directed labels from France, they all look pretty much like this. Stale, old, always invoking royal decrees, medallions or crests and hasn’t changed since the turn of the last century. That would be amazing if it somehow spoke timeless tradition, but it doesn’t in most of them - they just feel neglected and forgotten design-wise.
Traditional appellations and traditional labels often go hand in hand but if you look at the Vin de France scene (talking about quality-minded vignerons, not the 2 € bottles in the supermarkets) you see more and more artistic labels. This is especially obvious if you go to any natural wine bar in Paris - the labels are more often than not extremely colorful and eye-catching.
Judging French labels generally on the basis of a large negociant house is a bit odd.
Good point, I have noticed this. Is there some sort of regulation for the appellation in regards to label design?
No idea - although I would guess that at least not universally if one considers what kinds of front labels one can find even in traditional appellations sometimes, for example the following:
Prieure Roch - various Burgundy
Levet - Côte-Rôtie
Domaine de l’Ecu - Muscadet ‘Taurus’
And the very obvious - Ponsot.
Stylistically for sure it does not get any uglier than that. That said with my examples I was going for “artistic” labels that don’t give out much if any information about the wines’ origins.
The negociants are an exception but most of the wine in Burgundy is made in small quantities. So what do you do for your 3 barrels of Volnay?? You go to the printer and he says, you want ‘burnt edges’…‘livre d or’…or would you like to pay a designer 5000 Euros to design a label for you??
I have no idea how much money Bonny Doon paid Chuck House for all those labels–not to mention what they gave Ralph Steadman. Some of the work done for Mondavi…remember the bottle with a lip and the beeswax over the cork?? Probably 250,000$ in design costs.
If you’re in Burgundy, why wouldn’t you give information about the origins?? That’s what let’s you charge all that extra money. It’s not the Bichot name and famous marker of quality that’s doing it for you.
I’ve always loved Levet’s French labels. I wish they’d use them here in the States. I buy a ton of Levet, and save the French ones because they’re so much more fun 
Not sure if there is some sort of a language barrier here but I most definitely was not saying that one should go for a label that does not clearly state the region, appellation and the possible vineyard as well. I am all for stating the region/appellation/vineyard on the label, however of course Bichot’s labels are particularly unattractive otherwise.
I am not sure about Level’s French labels - on the other hand they look pretty cool but if you don’t know the wine and see it from a distance you would never know what’s inside the bottle. Give me Allemand every day of the week ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Sorry, I wasn’t clear Ikka - I meant that if you’re Bichot, you should definitely state the appellation/all information. Bichot isn’t making wines for geeks - it’s selling wines because of where it has holdings.
I think Levet’s labels are cool, but, of course, I know exactly what they are! I also agree that they’re suboptimal marketing (though I hardly object to that, it keeps them cheaper). Not going to disagree on Allemand, of course
No regulation. Just tradition and, as Mel said, many labels used by small producers are off-the-shelf designs for the appellation provided by local printers. You’ll see many wines of the same appellation with pretty much identical labels. Just the producers’ names are different.
A lot of Bordeaux chateaux have streamlined their labels somewhat in the last decade or so, but mostly they stick to a traditional look. As others have said, when you’re selling based on a long tradition of quality, it makes sense.
Into the 1990s, many German producers (e.g., Donnhoff) stuck with Gothic script, which is almost indecipherable to foreigners not accustomed to it. Talk about elevating tradition over commercial considerations! But they’re now all using the Latin alphabet.
For some reason, the Italians have been much more innovative graphically, probably because few of their wines traded on a century of status. Even where the labels are relatively traditional looking, they are generally well-designed, while many French labels just look frumpy. Again, part of this is just culture. The Italians have a flair for style, whether in clothes or wine labels are cars. Think of a Citroen versus an Alfa.
John,
Some of us love Citroens, esp the ones made fifty years ago.
And remember what Fiat stands for.
Ah, gotcha. I remember when I first saw a bottle of Levet Peroline in an IG post next to some other heavy hitters I had to really dig deep to find out what the heck it was.
Odd. Theres clearly “Grand vin de Bourgogne” on the label - that´s Burgundy.
The Appellation is “Cotes de Nuits-Village” - and since this is a negociant most probably it´s a cuvee from several sources, so no vineyard (which isn´t required at all). Sure you should know where Cotes-de-Nuits-Village is –
One should better do his homeworks first before complaining about a (correct if not pretty) label.
Allemand is a small producer, and if you don´t know him you have to look hard for the “Reynard” or “Chaillots” designation. And there is also a Cornas without vineyard -
Same for Levet -
Well now you got me really confused. Sure, English is not my first language but I really have no idea where your comment is coming from. I have not knowingly written anything about Bichot’s labels not being correct in any way as they are most certainly as classic as possible. What I tried to say above (and apparently failed miserably) is that this is exactly how I believe Burgundian labels should be (in comparison to let’s say some of Prieure-Roch’s labels), even if in Bichot’s case they could be easier on the eyes.
On the other hand my comment about Allemand’s labels was a stylistic one; I was saying to Greg that were I to have a winery of my own I would go for labels similar to Allemand’s instead of Levet’s French labels. Is my English really that hard to understand? I am asking honestly here.
It is really fascinating to me that the discussion has focused on wine labels rather than the tasting note. Bichot has long been a fairly mediocre negociant (with a few pretty good domaine wines) that has not changed its label materially in decades. I must admit that I care much more what is inside the bottle than what is on the label. But, I actually like the classic look of Bichot’s label (some of my earliest Burgundies were from Bichot back in the 1970s so I get a bit nostalgic). I like classic labels and really don’t like labels with pretty pictures that don’t provide any information. I guess I am not looking for clouds or the sea or new age crystals or whatever on a wine label.
But getting away from wine labels, I must admit that I was very surprised to see a regional wine from Bichot get rated 92 points. Either they have really upped their game or someone needs to taste Burgundy from really good producers.
I do need to taste Burgundy from really good producers, could not agree more.
I had implied this in one of my earlier posts, but different strokes.
