Packaging

 

Packaging

 

October 2018

 

Give This Person a Cigare: The Doon and Dirty of Wine Packaging

 

It is a pleasure to discuss wine packaging and labeling, a subject I never imagined I would be qualified totalkabout, but something about which, like it or not, as an entrepreneurial winery owner, I have been compelled to try to master.

 

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Packaging

 

October 2018

 

Connecting to Consumers Through Packaging

 

It was a day packed full of packaging Aug. 9, as some of the leading innovators exhibited their products and services surrounding wine packaging, branding and marketing to nearly 500 wine industry professionals at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville, Calif.

 

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Packaging

 

October 2018

 

A Conversation with Jim Cahill of Rutherford Wine Co.

 

Jim Cahill of Rutherford Wine Co. grew up in a small Wisconsin farming community, but he developed an early interest in wine, taking a cue from his wine-loving father. Cahill’s undergraduate degree is in English from Brown University in Providence, R.I., but he knew that wouldn’t determine his career. He wanted to get into the wine business.

 

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Packaging

 

September 2018

 

What's Popping in Sparkling Wine Packaging

 

According to a 2017 Nielsen study, 71% of consumers don't know what they want when they walk into a store looking to buy some wine.

 

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Packaging

 

August 2018

 

Wine Labels for a Sensory Experience

 

#WIYG (What's in your glass) and how one celebrates #WW (wine Wednesday) or #TT (thirsty Thursday) are the new conversations in wine.

 

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Packaging

 

May 2018

 

A Conversation with Lisa Ehrlich Connecting brands and wine packaging, and how to work with a designer

 

When Chicago native Lisa Ehrlich was growing up in Wisconsin, wine was always on the table. But her interest in wine and food deepened when she spent her junior year in college in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she also picked Grenache grapes during a harvest. Although her studies had prepared her to become a law professor, wine and food turned out to be a bigger attraction, and Ehrlich went on to become a co-founder of Chicago's famed Charlie Trotter's restaurant, where she developed the wine program.     

 

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Packaging

 

May 2018

 

Big Help for Tiny Wineries

 

Of more than 10,000 North American wineries currently reported by WinesVinesData, more than 8,000 are categorized as "very small" (fewer than 5,000 cases produced annually). About half of those have what's termed "limited production" (fewer than 1,000 cases).

 

     Many of these tiny wineries produce multiple varieties or brands, and although they may not enjoy the services of distributors under the three-tier system, they still want the benefits of standout packaging for direct-to-consumer sales: attractive, memorable packages that will bring customers back for more.

 

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Packaging

 

March 2018

 

Single-serve Packages Surging

 

 Once opened, 750-ml bottles pose a problem for many wine drinkers, who perceive that quality goes down when wine isn’t consumed within a day or two. Good bag-in-box (BiB) wine offerings are marketed as an alternative. BiB packages are known to preserve wines with their original flavor profiles for longer periods after opening, but brand and varietal choices are still limited. And BiBs, which normally contain 3 or 4 liters, may represent too large a commitment for casual consumers, although they are significantly less costly per unit than similar wines in 750-ml bottles.

This story began as a look into tiny bottles: 375-ml vessels and, almost incidentally, 187 mls. As it turns out, the tinier the better, according to wineries and bottlers we contacted. Hotel mini-fridges and airlines have made 187-ml packages more than familiar to travelers, and alternatives to the tiny bottles abound.

Winery POV

 

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Packaging

 

January 2018

 

Going Pro(totype)

 

Trade shows provide a super source for greeting old friends, meeting new ones and exposure to new vendors and technology. The Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in August introduced us to a novel concept: prototyping for packaging.

 

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Packaging

 

November 2017

 

Packaging Suppliers Unveil New Products

 

Every year, wine industry suppliers of all types submit hundreds of listings touting their newest products and services. Their entries are included in the supplier guide starting on page 40. For readers seeking packaging options, we combed the earliest entries and contacted them with specific questions about their offerings.

Concept and design

 

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Packaging

 

October 2017

 

Texture and Metallics Brighten Labels

 

Just a year ago, wine labels with a dark background were all the rage. They’re still out there, but the newest looks emphasize texturized, metal-accented designs. As in the fashion industry, packaging turns in cycles.

Shopping online and on shelves brought us to recognize this rotation, later confirmed by packaging designers and their clients. Shiny is definitely in. Shimmery papers, precious-metal inks screen-printed onto bottles, transparent inks on silver stock, metallic and holographic foils are all popular, according to Sara Nelson at Sara Nelson Design in Kennewick, Wash. Wineries seem to be craving texture: deep, luscious embosses, textured stock, super-matte varnishes contrasted with high-gloss varnishes and even high-build varnishes, she said.

European wine producers are not usually considered pioneers of modern packaging. However, French emigrée Jean-Charles Boisset, owner of the Boisset Collection that includes Raymond Vineyards, DeLoach Vineyards, Buena Vista Winery and JCB, has demonstrated he has fully adapted to the North American wine industry, introducing some seriously avant garde wine packages.

Raymond Vineyards is a 300,000-case producer in St. Helena, Calif. To mark its 40th anniversary, Boisset and his design team devised a textured “red velvet” label for the 2014 Reserve Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, the very epitome of tactile labels, with a tag line “the dress code is red velvet.” This design won the People’s Choice award in the recent Wines & Vines Packaging Design Awards.

Three wines from the historic, 54,000-case Buena Vista in Sonoma pay tribute to the winery’s founder, Agoston Haraszthy, with metal labels including a star-shaped badge for “Sheriff.”

With his creative team, Boisset himself designs “bejeweled” labels for Buena Vista’s popular “Revenge” red blend. The metal and bedazzled labels are manufactured in coordination with Atlanta’s Margot Townsend. These eye-catching and touch-inducing labels represent a major financial commitment. Megan Long, Boisset Collection communications manager, reports that they cost between $9 and $13 per bottle for front and back labels, depending on quality and quantity. The winery builds its own jigs and molds to provide consistent application. “It’s a difficult process that takes more time to apply than regular labels, so there is added labor cost,” she noted.

Labels for Matua’s 2016 Sauvignon Blanc and rosé vintages have been released to shelves in the United States. Although Matua is a New Zealand producer (normally out of our coverage area) it’s owned by Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), which owns numerous U.S. brands and wineries.

The labels “sense” temperature and change appearance when the wine reaches the ideal serving temperature. Designed by the firm Marks, a member of the design collective sgsco, the labels are printed on Manter Tinteretto Crystal Salt Ultra Wet-Strength stock. Sonoma’s CCL Label does the printing, using a combination of conventional and thermal ink from Chromatic Technologie Inc. in spot areas. Costs for this treatment are minimal, and with standard bottle shapes, there are reportedly no bottling line problems.

According to spokesman Jim Caudill, TWE will most likely extend the thermal “Chill Check” program to other brands. “There are no decisions, just explorations and ideas right now,” he said.

Matua chief winemaker Greg Rowdon said the idea is simple. “It’s all about enhancing freshness and drinkability, making it simple for people to recognize the best temperature to release and enhance flavors without having to consult a confusing table or chart.”

Build in a back-up plan

 

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Packaging

 

October 2017

 

Using Innovation in Wine Packaging Design

 

Nearly 20 years ago, when Corey Beck was still a relatively new winemaker, the namesake behind Francis Ford Coppola Winery wanted a sparkling wine, in a can, with a straw so consumers like his daughter could drink it demurely.

 

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Packaging

 

October 2017

 

Avoiding Redesign Pitfalls

 

Thinking about redesigning your wine brand with a new look or just an updated label? Take care, only about one out of every 10 brand redesigns delivers a significant sales impact, and half of them typically hurt a brand.

 

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Packaging

 

August 2017

 

Topping the Bottle: It's a Free-for-All

 

When searching at trade shows, online and in markets for trends in capsules and closures, we came up…empty. With so many choices, winemakers are free to top off their bottles of wine with whatever style seems the best fit for their customers.

For our annual Closures Issue, some of our winery and supplier sources shared observations about the ever-evolving closure industry. They might inspire you to change your style, or confirm your established appearance.

It all starts with the closure

 

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Packaging

 

May 2017

 

A conversation with James Sobbizadeh

 

When James Sobbizadeh graduated in 1985 from the University of Alabama-Birmingham with a degree in natural science, he took a job with a winery that produced wine coolers in Stockton, Calif. He started in the lab and ended up as the quality-control supervisor. But that job ended, and he moved to a custom co-packer that worked with juices, energy drinks and other beverages. The job wasn’t to the liking of Sobbizadeh, who realized he wanted to continue working with wine.

He found an opportunity to return to the industry in 1989, when he went to work for Fetzer Vineyards in its quality-control department. He became director of production in 1995. Today, from his base in Mendocino County, Sobbizadeh directs a team responsible for bottling millions of cases of wine every year. In addition to Fetzer Vineyards, those wines include brands such as Bonterra, Little Black Dress, Sanctuary and 1000 Stories.

Q:Fetzer is upgrading its bottling lines. What are you changing and why?

 

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Packaging

 

May 2017

 

Niche Packaging Services Let You Test the Market  

 

An article titled “Wine Packaging for Leaner Times,” printed in the November 2009 issue of Wines & Vines, stated, “Alternative packaging lies at the confluence of two major trends in the wine industry. The first is economical,” and “environmental awareness has been on the rise.” Many formats such as bag-in-box are much less expensive than the glass + cork + capsule + label paradigm, and they use less energy per case to ship from winery to market, as the packaging is very light. In addition, bags, boxes and cans are easily recycled with a smaller carbon footprint than glass, which requires massive amounts of energy to crush and reheat recycled material to 1,600° F to make a new bottle.

Since that article, convenience has become a third major trend to consider. Millennials love wine but are less interested in traditional packaging. To them, it’s an enhancement if packaging makes wine easier to enjoy, which explains the market success of good wines in heretofore heretical packaging formats such as cans, pouches, single-serve wines packed in their own glasses, under screwcaps, etc. In addition, restaurants are having success with more efficient formats such as recyclable plastic kegs and reusable stainless steel kegs.

You may be considering whether these new packaging formats would work for you. To try it out, you’ll likely want to start with a small test market quantity. But if you don’t have the equipment or training to fill packages like these, where do you begin? Are there vendors for this?

 

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Packaging

 

March 2017

 

Bottle Fancy

 

Wineries of every size labor over their labels (or screen-printed equivalent) to make bottles pop on the shelves and tell their stories in a limited amount of space. Some wineries, though, take a step back and opt for bottles in rare shapes, colors or designs to provide memorable packages.

A singular bottle of an unusual wine inspired our investigation of fancy bottles: Elegancia 2010 Madera Red Wine from 2,000-case Barterra Winery in Half Moon Bay, Calif. This fortified wine made from Tinta Cão, Tinta Madeira and Touriga grapes from California’s Madera appellation has 19.9% alcohol. Barterra produced just 105 cases of this wine, sold exclusively from the winery for $80 per bottle.

The bottle is a true standout, primarily because it stands in two ways: One side of the rounded bottle is flattened, so it can be balanced securely on a counter or tabletop.

The bottle, supplied by Bruni Glass, is not a “shelf item” in North America. It’s a specialty item ordered as needed and shipped from Italy with a minimum quantity required. Winery owner Bart Colucci said he is not aware of anyone else using the bottle in the United States.

“I firmly believe the package is an integral part of the wine experience. Presentation has a great impact on the decision for a customer to purchase the wine. They will not throw the bottle away and will always remember from whence it came. This particular package does just that,” Colucci said. “The exact wine in a jug will taste quite different. Someday, I’ll try this.”

While more standard wine bottles may cost between 25 cents and 80 cents each, depending on quantity and size, this one runs $2.25 plus freight, Colucci noted. The bottling line requires minor modification to accommodate the off-kilter shape. Individually printed and cut oval labels are hand applied, and each one costs $1.36. Bottle tags are individually affixed, and each bottle is hand-dipped in wax. Cartons are special orders, too, and carry only nine bottles each.

These bottles are truly a labor of love for Colucci, who designed the package featuring a portrait of his wife’s grandmother.

Bruni, which was acquired by Berlin Packaging in November 2016, serves the West Coast from its office in Fairfield, Calif. The Italian company sponsors The Bruni Glass Design Award competition, a biennial contest, and puts the winning concepts into its manufacturing portfolio.

Senior sales consultant Marilyn Gapp noted that these specialized bottles usually are employed for higher end wine to make it distinguishable and imply a story to tell. Many clients are small operations like Barterra, but even mega-corporations looking to expand their markets may adopt them, especially to drive interest in their wine clubs.

Clearly these outstanding bottles, which demand higher prices and additional costs for label application and bottling, are aimed at the luxury market. Despite Colucci’s comment that wine in a jug might taste different, at least one established winery has gone back to the jug for one of its premium wines.

Jug-eared

 

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Packaging

 

January 2017

 

Tiering Up Wine Brand Portfolios

 

When the wine industry talks about “tiers,” the word most often refers to the established three-tier system that dominates distribution and sales. But another type of tier is inherent within winery marketing strategies. Even many small-production wineries differentiate among price points, and packaging is the most direct way to do this, whether for hand sales in the tasting room or on retail shelves.

The use of tiering in a wine producer’s portfolio is another version of the “good, better, best” consumer market segmentation strategy. This good, better, best principle acknowledges that customers are not all equal. They have distinctive needs, seek out different product attributes and respond to different price points, according to veteran marketer/brand designer Ed Rice, director of brand strategy at Affinity Creative Group in Mare Island, Calif.

Rice pointed out that this type of differentiation is well known in other categories, especially among automobile brands, which seek to lure different consumer segments with economy through luxury models. (Think Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac or Scion-Toyota-Lexus.)

 

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Packaging

 

November 2016

 

Dress Up Your Packaging

 

We keep our eyes on packaging products and trends throughout the year. Trade shows such as the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in January and our own Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in August provide close-up views of the wide world of wine packaging and face-to-face meetings with suppliers from around the world.

For the Winery & Vineyard Supplier Guide published each November, we elicit updates for every category of wine industry suppliers, from vineyard and winery equipment to packaging and marketing services. For this companion feature, we cherry-picked the most intriguing new packaging methods and services and bring you their stories.

Go haute

 

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Packaging

 

October 2016

 

How to Create Packaging That Sells

 

 

It doesn’t seem to matter how a winery gets there, once it finds the right packaging for a wine brand, better sales will follow.

The right design can come from quirky and offbeat ideas generated in-house and produced with local talent, or it can be the result of a detailed and exhaustive process involving leading design firms. Either way, if a winery can hone in on an effective brand and packaging strategy, its brand will have a definitive advantage on retail shelves.

The trick is finding the strategy.

Experts in design, retail and wine production all discussed how to strike the right balance of brand and packaging at the third annual Wines & Vines Packaging Conference held Aug. 17 at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville, Calif. More than 450 people attended the show, which featured expert seminars, panel discussions, multiple tasting bars, a trade show and on-site brand consultations by several designers.

This year’s conference also included an expanded Wines & Vines Packaging Design Awards that featured winners selected by a panel of expert judges and “people’s choice” awards that were determined by votes of those attending the conference.

One of the day’s most engaging speakers was packaging designer Kevin Shaw, the creative director and founder of design firm Stranger & Stranger. Shaw decried the lack of innovation in wine packaging and provided numerous examples of how spirits, beer and even olive oil do a better job of being innovative.

He said he feared the U.S. wine industry is becoming a more homogenous sector, in which all wine starts to taste the same (to consumers at least) and even look the same. When that happens (as he said it did in the United Kingdom), the next step is steep discounting and an overall decline in quality. “No wonder consumers are bored, confused,” he said.

Shaw went so far as to offer free branding services from Stranger & Stranger for any wine company developing a truly unusual wine concept. “We want to shake the tree, so let’s make something,” he said.

In another conference session, James Stewart, president of Napa Valley’s Stewart Cellars, described how he worked with design firm CF Napa on an overhaul of the company’s second label, Slingshot. Stewart was joined by David Schuemann, owner and creative director for CF Napa, and Steve Lamoureux, senior vice president of product innovation and design for The Nielsen Co., for a panel discussion about the best practices for package design.

Schuemann said wineries should expect designers to provide examples of their work with references as well as the figures that demonstrate a clear return on investment. He said that a request for proposal is then followed by a creative brief, which forms the basis of the entire brand design and package. The brief can then be referred to later in the creative process.

Another popular session featured three wine retailers discussing what wine packaging worked in their stores—and what didn’t.

The speakers included Gary Fisch, owner of Gary’s Wine and Marketplace with four stores in New Jersey, and Debbie Zachareas, the partner and wine director at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant in San Francisco, Calif., and Oxbow Wine and Cheese Merchant in Napa, Calif. Moderating the panel discussion was Curtis Mann, the wine, beer and spirits buyer for Raley’s Family of Fine Stores, which includes 118 supermarkets.

Mann mentioned that Raley’s blind tastes all wines so they won’t be affected by the packaging. “It’s still a surprise when a good wine looks like the label was created by a third grader,” he said.

Authentic vs. approachable

 

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Packaging

 

October 2016

 

For Packages, Material Matters

 

 

Wines & Vines Packaging Conference Design Awards winners

Little-known California wineries are taking the lead with innovative packages that make them stand out. A judging panel (including this writer) for the Wines & Vines Packaging Design Awards evaluated and rated more than 120 entries from wineries and wine industry packaging suppliers. The panel chose its favorites in three categories, and the 50 top submissions were displayed at the Wines & Vines Packaging Conference on Aug. 17.

The judging panel, made up of five wine and design professionals, reviewed bottles and other formats submitted by wineries and industry suppliers such as packaging manufacturers and designers. Wines & Vines received 86 entries from wineries and 35 from suppliers. Among the supplier entries, the judges chose winners in the categories of Most Outstanding and Most Innovative. Among the winery entries they selected a winner for the the Most Outstanding category. Magazine editor Jim Gordon and graphic designer Rebecca Arnn handed out the five awards in a ceremony at the end of the conference.

People’s Choice winners

 

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Packaging

 

May 2016

 

Alternatives to Glass Packaging

 

 

In 1991 the sale of table wines in non-glass containers was allowed in Italy, including polylaminate, PET (polyethylene terephthalate), bag-in-box (BiB) and aluminium cans. Since 2008, Protected Designation of Origin wines can also be packaged in BiB (used mainly when buying bulk wine), if permitted by production regulations. Additionally, steel kegs have been authorized by EEC regulation 822-07 for the sale of wine on tap. In this case the container can withstand pressure of up to 100 atmospheres.

In Italy, many everyday wines packaged in paper products, aluminium and polyethylene are well accepted by consumers. In France you can also find mid-range and Appellation of Origin Controlled wines sold in cartons. These containers are eco-friendly, light and recyclable; the square-cornered shape makes all the handling phases of the product easy, right up to when it is consumed. Volumes range from 200ml to 1 liter for different types of consumers. Cartons allow wine to be preserved even longer than 12 months (the legal expiration date), and the packaging is a good barrier against light and oxygen damage because of the small amount of head space (Baroni et al., 2013).

Other rapidly spreading forms of packaging such as PET bottles and BiB allow a much shorter shelf life for wine—typically between two and nine months.

Plastic packaging materials may release unwanted substances into wine and can also modify aromatic properties through “flavor scalping” (the absorption of volatile aroma compounds), depending on the characteristics of the materials and molecules involved (Lunardelli et al., 2009). Other factors may influence this phenomenon, such as the volume of packaging in contact with the wine, wine pH, SO₂ level and storage temperature.

Another aspect to consider is the permeability of plastic materials, especially to oxygen, and consequent deterioration of the product. Wine producers should monitor the evolution of their products in contact with these materials in relation to expected storage times.

To reduce the environmental impact of packaging and transport, higher quality wines destined for aging can make use of lightweight glass bottles. The most suitable choice of packaging always depends on expected shelf life of the product and on the type of distribution and marketing planned.

Bag in box

 

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Packaging

 

May 2016

 

Outstanding Wine Packages

 

 

Domestic wine brand Ninety Plus Cellars is launching a line of canned, imported wines called Lila Wines to cater to millennials.

The annual Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, Calif., provides an exhaustive exposition of industry suppliers from the vineyard through the tasting room. The Wines & Vines crew scours the tradeshow floor in search of new ideas to source a year’s worth of stories, returning with suitcases full of information and contacts.

Gold medal for Silver bottle

 

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Packaging

 

March 2016

 

The Changing Landscape of Wine Bottles

 

 

Gallo Glass has 14 machine lines and employs 690 full-time staffers in California's San Joaquin Valley.

Winemakers and packaging designers have confirmed that the wine industry remains conservative when it comes to adopting new presentations (see “Designer Dreamscapes” in the January 2016 issue). New bottle shapes and sizes are a hard sell—especially on retail shelves—for well-documented reasons.

Packaging suppliers, however, continue to introduce new options and find buyers willing to invest in small alterations to make their wine stand out and even raise its perceived value.

Glass bottles manufactured in the United States and Europe remain high-quality options, while complaints about quality and consistency from low-cost Asian imports continue, according to wine industry sources. Glass prices have remained relatively stable in the past year.

Glass acts

 

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Packaging

 

January 2016

 

Designer Dreamscapes

 

 

Including metal labels or embellishments are ways of conveying a sense of luxury to wine consumers.

Star packaging designers who addressed Wines & Vines’ second annual packaging conference in August 2015 seemed to agree: The North American wine industry tends to be extremely conservative about adopting novel packaging designs and solutions.

For a business that is inherently creative (a new vintage every year, farming and legal challenges, shifting market strategies), this might seem off-kilter. On the other hand, the New World’s belated embrace of wine as a mass-market beverage—and the practicalities of retail display and home storage—do, in some ways, mandate conservative decisions. Even if it might stand out, few dare try to sell a wine that won’t fit on shelves and wine racks. On-premise sales are often ignored in the design process.

Winemaker and restaurant consultant Pietro Buttita, who attended the Wines & Vines Packaging Conference, commented afterward: “It is often assumed that restaurant wines don’t need creative packaging, but the buyer still needs to have interest and the packaging can help anchor that decision-making process, especially in that meaty $10-15 wholesale per bottle zone.”

Buttita’s Rosa d’Oro brand produces some 2,000 cases annually in the Kelseyville Bench appellation of Lake County, Calif., giving him first-hand understanding of marketing boutique wines.

“Small producers are often not so great with general brand design and integrating website, packaging, print collateral, etc., in a meaningful way. With the plethora of brands out there, there really isn’t much reason to assume that anyone is unique, or that ‘small, family-owned’ means anything,” he said.

“Label design seems like a burden to many small producers, the last thing they want to think about. Or it is outsourced and clearly unconnected. I encourage small wineries to think of it the opposite way, as chefs think of their menus.

“The bottle is the primary document, and though dialing it in is a long process I feel that grower/producers (whom I prefer to work with) need to think of it as the executive summary of their business plan—that icing on the cake. Especially when you only have a few hundred cases, keep it meaningful and personal. So many bottles out there lack integrity, like a menu that doesn’t deliver or transparently convey the experience to come. Even small labels spend a lot of time guessing what the consumer wants, rather than focusing on the nature of their product,” he said.

For Rosa d’Oro, Buttita worked with Kerri Green Design of Oakland, Calif., to draw heavily on Old World southern Italian packaging for the style. This, Buttita said, “Gives it a sense of location in time and place using screen-print bottles that work with our limited bottling space. The wine was not made in an international style, so hopefully the packaging reflects the style markers to some extent,” he said.

“This might be the exception when brands reach for either modern labels or classic. Nothing is more disappointing than super-neat packaging and boring, oak-chipped, sweet ‘anywhere-wine.’”

Design inspiration

 

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Packaging

 

November 2015

 

Little Things Mean A Lot

 

 

The AVA Series label by Labeltronix demonstrates the new capabilities of label stock.

Improving the performance of your wine package may not require a complete redesign. Sometimes small changes can make a big difference in wine sales and profit margins. From the label stock to the closure to bottling—and then later in the tasting room—a slightly different approach can make a major impact.

As we do every fall, Wines & Vines scoured dozens of submissions to the packaging section of our November supplier listings, looking for new products and services we haven’t previously covered. If something strikes your fancy, find contact information in the Buyer's Guide Online.

If you’re looking for inspiration, start right here to learn about some possibly unexpected sources.

Get it on paper

 

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Packaging

 

October 2015

 

Building Value with Wine Packaging

 

 

Andrew Rice, creative director of Trinchero Family Estates (at podium), moderates a panel of designers including Tony Auston, Jim Moon and Jeff Hester.

After sealing the deal to sell his Meiomi brand to Constellation Wines for $315 million, Joe Wagner became the wine industry’s newest “it boy.” The fifth-generation Napa Valley winemaker opened the second annual Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in Napa on Aug. 19, giving the keynote address.

The 33-year-old Wagner described his family’s single-vineyard Pinot Noir label Belle Glos as the leading luxury Pinot Noir in the United States, thanks in part to a distinctive, instantly recognizable package. Wagner recounted the evolution of the Belle Glos package for conference attendees. What started as a simple, red wax seal has grown to envelop the top half of Belle Glos’ bottle in scarlet wax. “I think we are the largest consumer of wax in the wine industry,” he told the audience.

Applying wax dips is normally an arduous task performed by hand, but Wagner commissioned an Italian manufacturer to develop an automated system with the goals of safety and consistency. He passed around samples of a proprietary tear tab, which simplifies removing the cork without disrupting the visual flow of wax.

Along with the “Sideways” effect that helped propel Pinot Noir sales starting in 2004, he believes the package helped build recognition of the Belle Glos brand. The package now has a trade-dress trademark on its wax dipping, and a patent is pending, Wagner said. “People are always trying to steal a good idea.”

Wagner started his own company in 2014, Copper Cane Wine & Provisions, and remains involved in The Wagner Family of Wine as well. He enumerated what he looks for in a wine package:

Exclusivity: Make it something special. Belle Glos bottles are not quite the traditional Burgundy shape.

Individuality: Make the package one of a kind.

Tradition: Wine buyers are accustomed to standard shapes. Get too far off the standard, and people lose interest.

Tell a story: Package for your purpose. Are you selling on- or off-premise? This can make a big difference in sales.

CONFERENCE IMMERSES 370 ATTENDEES IN WINE PACKAGING
 

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A crowd of 370 people attended the second annual Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in Napa on Aug. 19 to gain insights about new wine packaging innovations and connect with suppliers.

 

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Packaging

 

May 2015

 

Continual Improvement at Packaging Facility

 

 

Pepperjack's wraparound label differentiates the Graded Collection.

The boss of one of the world’s most advanced wine bottling facilities says there’s nothing better than success based on teamwork. Danni Casey, site operations manager for the Wolf Blass Packaging Centre, says her competitive nature helps drive her to look at every process and work out how to improve it.

The state-of-the-art packaging facility, surrounded by vineyard in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, was built in 2005 at a cost of about $120 million (all figures in Australian dollars), employs about 200 people, has multiple bottling lines capable of filling 24,000 bottles per hour, labeling lines capable of 26,000 bottles per hour and a 22,000-pallet storage facility operated by nine robotic cranes.

“We are very, very lucky to have all this technology, and it has all been put together so well,” Casey said. But despite the giant scale of the operation, the staff’s focus on “continuing improvement” means even the smallest operations are scrutinized. A change to the way the facility carries out torque tests of screwcaps is just one example. The test actually destroys the cap, which means both bottle and cap are destined to be recycled. The test used to be conducted on bottles that already had been filled and sealed, until someone realized they were wasting 16 full bottles of wine every two hours. Now the tests are carried out on empty bottles, and thousands of liters of wine are saved each year.

“We have consistently driven our costs per case down,” Casey said. “When I first started here as a line manager in 2008, the average change-over time on a line from one product to another was 90 minutes. It’s now 35 minutes.

“The whole business has changed as well. We are now bottling wine to order, rather than filling up whole sheds of certain products. We do a lot smaller runs and have more SKUs (stock keeping units).”

Challenging new labels

 

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Packaging

 

March 2015

 

Think Ink

 

 

MB Corp.'s custom-built screenprint equipment can produce elaborately decorated bottles like this while conserving energy and the atmosphere.

During the first years of the 21st century, the wine industry bought into the “green” concept of sustainability in a big way. With programs ranging from rigid self-assessment to organic certification to Biodynamic growing, vintners now serve their consumers a menu of guilt-free options that protect the environment, the economy and social equity.

The ever-changing array of wine packaging continues to keep pace, although the “sustainability” of various options remains a subject of debate. Which is greener: natural cork, synthetic stoppers or screwcaps? Which is more earth-friendly: glass bottles, bag-in-box or kegs? Winemakers and suppliers each have their own take, and their decisions contribute to the wealth of choices on retail shelves and delivered to the homes of wine club members.

One thing everyone agrees on, though: Branding your wine is key to sales. One way or another, this means printing—whether on boxes, labels, capsules or directly on the bottle.

Enter the ink, which was “invented” and first put to use by the Chinese around 256 BC. Wines & Vines has been writing about organic ink for at least five years, when proudly green wineries began adopting it for labels and shippers. Interest and choices in organic ink continue to grow.

Light ’em up

 

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Packaging

 

January 2015

 

Make the Most of Shipping Cases

 

 

France Freeman—Courtesy Costco

It’s generally acknowledged that retail consumers make snap judgments when faced with shelves of wine. While varietal, origin and price are the first elements consumers evaluate, it’s the package—bottle size, shape, color and label or décor—that seals the deal. What’s in the bottle is key to future purchases, but that first impression may persuade consumers to take the plunge and make the first buy.

Luring shoppers to a display and making eye/hand contact with the first bottle includes one packaging element that’s often overlooked: the shipper/carton. The appearance of a shipper can compel merchandisers to feature wines on endcaps (at the ends of retail store aisles) and attract additional interest and sales, according to leading wine retailers.

A simple brown corrugated case shipper may serve the basic function of safely transporting bottles to the retail floor, but more elaborate decoration can further your brand message.

Curtis Mann is the senior business manager for wine, beer and spirits at Raley’s Family of Fine Stores. Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., Raley’s has 120 supermarkets in Northern California and Nevada. Mann emphasized the importance of shippers for retail displays during his presentation at the Wines & Vines Packaging Conference in August.

Although he’s not seen a tidal wave of new shipper design, “People have gone beyond just cardboard,” he told Wines & Vines during a recent interview. In grocery retail, “The label sells. Shippers can influence what is or is not displayed” at individual stores, depending on local demographics.

Wineries would be wise to take a lesson from the rapidly growing craft beer industry, Mann said. “Look at beer. People buy beer in 12-packs. Brewers like Lagunitas Brewing Co. display variety packs in different forms, building an in-store billboard. It’s good to get that billboard display. Vintage dates are not required on a wine box,” he said.

“What we see are items on display get a 24% increase (in sales) vs. those featured in our print ads,” Mann noted. “When people come in, they are looking by varietal. They generally are not too brand loyal, and they are willing to switch” if drawn to an in-store display.

Individual store merchandisers implement display levels. “At the store level, case shippers are important,” he said. “Stores like to build displays, and they are probably more interested by the box.”

Mann said that box manufacturing and printing has improved along with attention to the shippers. “There are only so many opportunities to promote your product. Your best opportunity is to take advantage of what you can.”

Packaging may not be the reason consumers buy your product, but he stressed, “It’s an important component that you can continue to activate after sales via clear, concise messaging.”

Expensive wooden presentation boxes are never discarded at Raley’s, and they may be re-used after their initial display, Mann said. Corrugated case shippers may be recycled at checkout. He recommended using 12-bottle case shippers vs. lay-down six-packs, which are difficult to position at retail.

“Think about selling for retail: Stacking flat six-packs is difficult. To sell a lot of cases, they have to be easily stackable,” he said.

Cues from Costco

 

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Packaging

 

November 2014

 

From Branding to Bottling

 

 

Gravotech's Gravograph M40DeepVice is suitable for engraving personalized wine bottles.

Our November issue focuses on the new products and services reported by hundreds of suppliers to the North American wine industry. Wine packaging is among the most progressive segments in terms of innovation; more than 100 suppliers chose to be featured in the packaging section of our listings.

From this compilation of valuable information, we cherry-picked a dozen packaging suppliers with attention-grabbing responses. Take a look at what they are offering, and then check out what else is available within the comprehensive listings starting on page 35.

Brand development and package design

 

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