The label on a wine bottle can be telling about what’s inside. But is what you see always what you sip?
Is what you see what you sip? Wine — making it, wanting it, sipping it — is an art form. Like the delicious offerings inside the bottles we like best, wine labels can also be considered artistic expressions, ranging from simple and referential to evocative and compelling. Other times, they can be grape juice caricatures.
Here we explore a mural of wine labels that share a what-you- see-is-what-you-sip factor. These wine labels reference high quality, mindfully made wines that represent the winemaker (the artist) in some way.
LIFE IN A LABEL
For his export bottles, winemaker Jean-Paul Versino’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape boasts a dreamy chateau, a more colorful version of the traditional French label. Winemaker André Hueston Mack’s O.P.P. (Other People’s Pinot) label features a play on the 90s hip-hop group Naughty By Nature’s “OPP” (Other People’s Property), the graffiti-like letters reminiscent of street art long before Wynwood Walls validated it.
While these winemakers don’t appear to be looking for any particular validation, they are making statements on their labels and in the glass. “In the late 90s, I discovered the beauty of wine.It was completely something new for me,” said Testamatta winemaker and artist Bibi Graetz, whose paintings appear on his wine labels.
“I was falling into glasses and discovering layers and layers. That’s what you do when you’re tasting fine wine. This is the idea about the labels. It’s not about the colors. It’s more about the feeling of looking and searching into a glass and discovering different layers.”
Fifteen years ago, the Villalobos family discovered an 80-year-old abandoned Carignan vineyard They started vinifying Carignan from these vines. Villalobos winemaker Rolando Villalobos shared that for 60 years, the vines grew freely among native Chilean flora — rose hip, pine trees, blackberry bushes and other animal and vegetable species. His father, Chilean sculptor Enrique Villalobos, designed a wine label that reflects the family’s philosophy of working with “wild vineyards.”
“Our cellar is located in Valle de los Artistas, in Lolol city in Colchagua Valley,” wrote Rolando Villalobos in an email. “The art of sculpture and the art of winemaking are intrinsically linked in the creation process.”
WOKE WINE
Winemaker Frédéric Brouca creates wines that are “alive,” a wellness word that has made its way from yoga mats to fermentation tanks. From the consumer perspective, “alive” connotes a brightness on the senses Brouca captures by picking grapes 2 to 3 weeks before other winemakers, creating lower alcohol and higher acidity wines. He uses native yeasts as part of his process of creating certified organic wines.
Brouca’s vision is reflected in his simple, vine-and-sun label created by his friend, artist Hugues Véron. “Since the use of chemicals that started after WWII, there is a paranoia of correcting everything in the vineyards as well as in the cellar resulting in all wines tasting the same,” Brouca wrote in an email.
Eric Kent wine labels are not the same. The winery supports artists by featuring their art, their signatures and their website addresses on the labels.
Winemaker Martha Stoumen’s vision was “no labels” when she asked her then-boyfriend, now- husband John Patch to design the “Post Filtration” wine label. “I wanted it to be two lovers but genderless, ageless, and something that your grandma would be alright with seeing on a wine label,” she says.
A Guide to the Wines
2016 Villalobos Viñedo Silvestre Carignan Reserve Limited Edition, $52.
A cloudy violet hue leads to a mystical, Miami nose: Homestead dragonfruit, tangerine, blood orange, lavender, wet rose petals, and rain-tossed oranges sprawled on gigantic, palm tree leaves. The palate sparkles with finely embroidered acidity and minerality offering red plum skin and lemon zest notes. Laginappe, 3425 Northeast 2nd Avenue, Miami; 305-576-0108.
2013 Domaine Bois De Boursan Chateauneuf-du-Pape, $42.99.
This is a soil-to-palate wine. It’s sticking your tongue into the soil and feeling the earth orbit around your palate. On the nose, there’s frying pancetta, applewood smoked bacon and summer black cherries. On the palate, more summer black cherries, pimento, nutmeg shell, lime rind and Haitian shallots. Woodswholesalewine.com (2016 vintage is also available).
2018 Testamatta Bianco, $90- $93.
When first opened, fine bubbles rise to the surface in this optically illusive still. Made with 100% ansonica, the nose offers a beguiling honey note with a hint of fresh aloe. On the palate, a gorgeous minerality-mosaic illuminates a dry-Riesling-petrol characteristic that climaxes in an oily mouthfeel. Azul Wines & Spirits, 1414 20th Street, Miami Beach; 305-538-2985.
2018 Martha Stoumen Post Flirtation, $36.
If you thought you knew California Zinfandel, this is an alluring departure. Stoumen pairs 50% zinfandel with 50% carignan in this Lambrusco-meets-Loire-Valley sensory collage. Delicious summer blackberry and black cherry notes are enlivened with lemon and tangerine notes along the way. Proper Sausages, 9722 Northeast 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores; 786-334-5734.
2017 O.P.P., $21.99.
This is like a DJ spinning raspberries, cerise cherries, blood oranges and pluots on your palate, adding anise and cinnamon on the long finish. Azul Wines & Spirits, 1414 20th Street, Miami Beach; 305-538-2985.
2017 Faugères Brouca Champs Pentus, $24.
On the nose, fresh, summer blackberries and blueberries mix with wet, Miami mango skin. As it opens, your palate is steeped in a southern French painting of sweet black cherry sauce, black truffles and dried lavender. Proper Sausages, 9722 Northeast 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores; 786-334-5734.
2018 Eric Kent wine rosé, $21-$24.
The opulent watermelon color is like a fluid monochromatic painting. It introduces a wet marijuana leaf funk that fades into cucumber and apricot pit on the nose. On the palate, strawberries, apricots, cerise cherries and white nectarines groove through the beautiful minerality. erickentwines.com.