.: #WineLabelDesignAwards at Beau Constantia

Thursday, February 19, 2015

#WineLabelDesignAwards at Beau Constantia

Christian Eedes of Wine Magazine has come up with this novel annual competition conducted on line. On Tuesday night at Beau Constantia we were present at the award ceremony. There were certainly some controversial, some new and innovative, and some well deserved and long awaited choices amongst the winners. You can see them here for yourself

There was lots of discussion about what a wine label should contain and there were a couple that had very little information on the label. Is it enough to put just three random words “agile curious poised” that do not seem to relate to the wine and do not inform the buyer what they are/would be buying? As ex-wine retailers, we know that customers need to know what is in the bottle, as they will move swiftly on to something with clear information. We would like to see a retail sponsor fund a Retailers Award next year where the retailers can pick the labels they think will (or do), sell the best, visuals that jump out at the buyer

The overall winner, BlankBottle’s, labels were self designed with no input from professional designers; there did seem to be a few noses out of joint about that. And one award winner’s bottles looked like they were mock-ups with cardboard labels

MC for the evening, designer John Pace had printed his T-shirt for the event

He was also the one who came up with the very novel logo – a calligraphy pen shaped wine bottle

Views from Beau Constantia over the upper Constantia valley are beautiful, especially at late afternoon/evening

Christian Eedes and partner Jacqueline Lahoud checking the award table before the guests arrive

A lovely glass of Tradition bubbly to start the evening

The Constantia mountain top, with vines now growing almost to its summit

Irene Waller from La Bri, which was a bronze medal winner for their series of labels. She is with John Pace

Media, designers and wine people gathering

One of Beau Constantia’s vineyards

It’s time to announce the winners

Christian Eedes presented the awards

Wicus Maritz, MD of Rotolabel, the sponsor

Explaining in a very visual way

why you need a label

on a blank bottle

and what it needs to say

And how with good design you can turn information into something to admire and covet

Christian talking about the judges and the judging

John Pace announcing the winner

and Jacqueline revealed the labels as they were announced

Rozy Gunn from Iona with her award. They won awards for three of their labels: for Mr P He Knows, Sophie TeBlanche and for The One Man Band

Really nice to see Mulderbosch get an award from a label that has been with us for a long time, but breaks with tradition and represents their brand so well

These were some of the winning wines

A delighted Adam Mason and the designer accepting the award for his Marvellous Range labels

And the winner of the solid copper Trophy went to the Blank Bottle series. Peter Walser also won a gold for the Range and got the most votes on line. Most of his wines are marketed to private clients on line

It is a very impressive Trophy

Owner, winemaker and designer of his own labels, Peter Walser accepting his award. He is now making his wines at Lanrust. The back labels are interesting but to find out about the wine you have to use your phone to read the QR code and get the information downloaded from the internet