Audelssa

Delicious flavors and aromas of oak, vanilla and ripe raspberry cake. One of the best reds I've drink here in San Francisco. On the other hand, boring label, boring design. Definitely, the label did not inspire me to purchase the wine. I met Audelssa's wine maker and talking with him was so inspiring. Thanks Erich

Cima Collina

Cima Collina is a winery that combines art with wine. I'm sold if wineries apply art to their wine, it's art with art or square art. Howling is a great blend wine made mainly of merlot, very tasty ideal for a BBQ or for doing a project. Located in Monterey, they donate all the benefits of this wine to an association that protects and helps animals. Their store in Carmel is beautiful, small and with a nice crafted wood work in the bar. Friendly wine and friendly people. The label represents their dog, made by a local artist. Everything in this winery is so handcrafted, and girl power: the wine maker is Annette Hoff. Congratulations!

Visit their website:
http://www.cimacollina.com/index.html

Galante

I love the Galante wines, specially their cabernet and their sauvignon blanc. The white wine has such a great aroma and peach flavour, delicious. The carbenet has a great body. We had a great time in their store in Carmel. Their design is cowboy oriented, the store too: with chears that wear a cowboy boot. Also the label has a brownish earth feeling and a small cowboy atraping a cow (American style). Very constant throughout the company, the store and their bottles.

Woodbrige

I can't believe one of the gurus of Napa, Robert Mondavi, can elaborate such a wine less. Flavor less, color less, aroma less. The price for a Mondavi was cheap... may be that's why. The design is boring, similar to French designs, to keep the traditional values.

Albarinyo

Since I've talked widely about Galicia and the Albarinyos, here is Torre de La Moreira a wine accessible in the Bay Area. Honestly, I was expecting more of the wine. Design wise it does not have a traditional label, it is integrated in the bottle... may be that is why was so expensive for its taste.

Mo Zin

Mo Zin is elaborate here in California, concretely in Sonoma County. It is a great combination of different grapes, a secret blend of Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Carignane and Petite Sirah. I have to confess that I'm cheese addict and this wine matches perfectly! I'm not sure what I think about its label. The type reminds me of Papirus (not a fashion and stylish font) and the image looks like a lino cut of mountains. The label's form is not rectangular, it looks like a mask (wide in the top and narrow at the bottom). And the off white background is so old style: a bit more of modern design!! In general some wineries keep their designs really traditional, because they want to keep this long tradition values from a family of wine makers and bla bla bla... Ok, it's cool to have hundred years of experience, but there are tones of winemakers without this long experience with great and sophisticated ideas. This concept should be also transmited in the label and some wineries they are stuck with the view of tradition. CHANGE! WE NEED A CHANGE!!!

Note: the image is not the same wine that I drunk, however, the label is the same

Combating nostalgia

Personally, this is a wine appropriate to combat nostalgia. When you miss your country, food, family and friends a Ribera del Duero is the perfect cure for this symptoms. Ribera del Duero is one of the most relevant regions in Spain, probably the most important with Rioja and Priorat. Martin Berdugo has a lot of character and flavour, like Spanish people! I love the label, specially the upper part; the 2 red circles with with the red initials, I think they try to highlight the character of this wine. The price has also character, however, is the perfect remedy for home sickness.

I didn't see the stones in the lower part of the label, somebody knows what do they mean??

More wine to beat the crisis

The good thing about the Spring break is that I can enjoy more wine tastings. I've tried two more white wines with arguable quality, however they have interesting labels as well as names: barefoot and pancake. Barefoot has a variety of white wines, all monograpes, this means they use only a kind of grape for each wine. I did not tried the reds, but all whites are kind of refreshing, but definitely whites are not astonishing wines. Their website is also kind of refreshing: www.barefootwine.com
I guess they play with the name, you are barefoot when you have to press the grapes and you are barefoot in the beach, where you disconnect, enjoy, get a refreshing swim and a cool glass of wine.
The website it reminds me of a travel agency for any Caribbean island. They have an image of a wood wall, typical from touristic beach destinations; however, it could be associated it with wood barrels. Anyway, this website makes me want to go to the beach and have a seafood paella with a cold glass of wine (probably not barefoot...).

The other wine, also a crisis wine, has funny label and name: pancake. Im not sure if this wine would match with pancakes. its a mix of different grapes, being the final product nothing spectacular. This is the only image i could fine, also not sure if it will match the laughing cow cheese... The main figure of the label is a huge grape, it's cute, isn't it??

Celler del Roure

Under petition of one follower I'll post the wine labels of the two wines made by Celler del Roure. Soon I'll give more info about them, since they are interested in these blog/website. Maduresa is my favorite wine label.

Maduresa

Les Alcusses

Translation of josemaria comments

This is a correction + more info and curiosities about Terra Alta. Terra Alta has a guarantee of region of origin for wines. It was at the beginning of the 20th century when they developed Art Noveau wineries, with a great cultural interest. Some were designed by Cesar Martinell, architect and disciple of Gaudi. Other curiosity is that Pablo Picasso spent one year, in 1898, in a village of this region. He met the here Manuel Pallares, an artist who later on would introduce Picasso in the cultural life of Barcelona... as well as the night life of the city.

Thanks for the comments!

Stone Cellars by Beringer (California)

As my teacher repeats us, students, 3 times in a row that we have to work, work, work, I could also emphasize one thing about this wine: boring, boring, boring. Starting with the label: a traditional painting of a country house surrounded by vineyards. Of course, in the lower part there is the emblem of the winery, a stamp of tradition and quality. Could be more boring? The type is kind of interesting, it seems like stone carve, specially the word "stone".
More boring components: the taste. Please note that this label is of a Merlot wine and I'm going to comment about the white Chardonnay. It is a basic standard taste of Chardonnay, nothing memorable after you've drunk it, or worthy to emphasize. It has a nice body and texture and what is nicer: the price. To overcome the economy crisis you get for less than $10 a HUGE bottle of Chardonnay, it will help you to forget the monetary problems.

guarantee of region of origin of a wine

As we mentioned below, Terra Alta is a region without a guarantee of region of origin. If you want to know a bit more about the Denominaciones de origen, here is a definition:

DENOMINACIÓN DE ORIGEN Originally designed as a guarantee of the place of origin and quality of wine, the Denominación de Origen is now also used for other products such as cheeses, olive oil, fruit and meat, especially where the production of a particular region is highly regarded (as in the case of olive oil from Jaén, Manchego cheese, or Jabugo cured ham). EU law now regulates the use of such labeling.

Spain has numerous denominaciones, the most famous may be Rioja and Ribera del Duero. In my region (Valencia-Alicante) we have 2 main relevant: Utiel-Requena and Marina Alta. By the way, all these places are faboulous gastromic vacation destinations!

Sexto

Sexto is a wine from Terra Alta, in Tarragona (North East from Spain and South from Barcelona). Why I purchased this wine was mainly because it's label design: with a strong red and yellow, is clearly identify with a Spanish or Catalan wine. It has also a paint of the number 6 (sexto means the sixth), which reminds of Miro paintings. It has nice flavours of blackberrie and other berries with touches of vanilla, delicious!! I think it would be a good wine for some Manchego cheese and others such as Tetilla, as well as fish and meat (however, not a strong dish of meat such as red meat).

Cheers

wine and design

This is a blog made for tasting wine and design. Any comments about Spanish and Californian wines are very welcome. Of course, design plays a relevant role when wineries try to sell their products. We will look to web sites, labels and other kind of design related to wine.
Taste, taste, taste wine and design!!

Cheers