Yes, Chevalier-Montrachet looks much better that just Montrachet. Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet is probably too long, though.
I like the traditional labels - Rousseau, Hudelot-Noellat, Fourrier, Roumier - classic lettering and the crests, shields and crowns. They are impressive when you have them in your cellar or pull them out for consumption that they looks the part. I don’t know where the Mugneret-Gibourg label falls, but it is beautiful and I love it.
The Ponsot and Dujac labels don’t move me. Neither does the ubiquitous Jadot label. I don’t like the nouveau-looking labels either.
On the other hand, if it’s a good wine I want to buy I don’t let the label stop me. A good example are the Loring labels - they make me cringe, but it’s good juice. Columbia Crest Reserve is down there too. Bouchard’s label sits at the bottom of the cask.
What do you know about Burgundy??
Enough to know if you give me one of those to drink that I’m probably going to be happy…
Lets just say I wish Fourrier had not changed his label.
Good thread, mercifully absent a bunch of chest-thumping about how “I only care what’s inside the bottle.”
Let me pose a few wrinkles on the question:
(1) if a new producer came out with a label in an antique style along the lines of Buzz’s first category, would we also admire that, or would it seem tacky or phony?
(2) What about if a producer (e.g. Alex Gambal) switched from a modern label to a new but antique-styled label?
(3) What would you think of a new world producer who had a label in that antique style?
Rousseau Chambertin is probably my all time favorite label…love it!
+1
i like leflaive’s for whites.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I’m with everyone else here.Rousseau’s Chambertin label is undoubtedly the most beautiful and quintessential of all and has added in no small measure to the general adoration of the wine. It seems to me that no new label is ever an improvement-who remembers the beautiful old Grivot label? I’m sure a little of the resistance to the current wines is to do with the cool and anodyne new one. Faiveley and Fourrier are ruined, Bouchard is foul, Laurent is spoiled, Ponsot deplorable, Jadot still good… just bring back the old ones, reserving new and improved designs for personal hygiene products and mobile telephones.
I agree completely, but I really like Anne Gros labels, and they are certainly not traditional. Sort of like Ridge meets Gaja.
Probably tacky. What’s classic for one region doesn’t necessarily work in another. You couldn’t have a wine with Christoffel’s or Willi Schaefer’s label from anywhere but Germany. Graphic design has terroir too!
the white European Ramonet label is better than the one Buzz pictured. And Rousseau Chambertin is indeed a cool label. But it is the juice that matters.
alan
Am I the only one who finds all the Gothic fonts and various other old-fashioned design elements a bit pretentious? Granted, it’s not nearly as bad as putting a picture of your fancy house on the label, but still. My favorite label design is Ridge’s; clean, minimalist, distinctive, functional, lots of useful information that’s easy to find, conveys the impression that it’s the wine itself that matters. DRC is probably the closest Burgundian analogue. Although I do like Rousseau’s practice of using different labels for different terroirs.
I think Barthod and Liger Belair are in league with some of the earlier mentions. Mugnier isn’t too bad. Chevillon is a tweener but I think it still works… especially when it says Cailles. I must admit a slight partiality to the “pretty”, “traditional” ones.
Indeed. The reverse is equally true - classic European wine regions trying to modernize their labels to look more new world. Nothing drives me more crazy than an otherwise classic old world wine presented to me by an importer who has decided to “update the label for the American market.”
Yes, but it seems that the best Domains know how to present their bottles. The only truly ugly bottle I own is the Damoy Beze. Damoy is now making spectacular Chambertin Clos de Beze and I predict that his star will rapidly rise and the label will change.
Chest thumping? Chest thumping’s got nothing to do with it. It IS what’s inside the bottle that counts. The best, most magical wine you ever had… did you write a tasting note or tell everyone how cool the label was?
As the saying goes: After seeing a musical, no one leaves the theater humming the scenery.
It may not be the label itself, but I believe everyone here cares about what the wine is as opposed to just how it is. If you had to serve all your wines blind with no reveal, would you really pay as much for them? Alternately, suppose you had all the same qualitative information (including, magically, whatever info you want about age-worthiness) about individual wines but they were generically labeled - would you pay as much?
Are you asking if I’d pay for a wine not knowing what it was? Why would I? But if you’re asking if I’d buy La Tâche with a plain label or a missing label (assuming I could afford it), knowing for certain that it was La Tâche, well, sure, why not?
Again, if you mean knowing all the pertinent information (producer, vineyard, vintage, etc.) then, yes, absolutely, but how about this: Would you offer me a discount for Rousseau’s Chambertin if it came with a plain label, or with a new, ugly label? How about a really big discount because, after all, I’d be missing all the pleasure of an attractive label? Hell, I’d be all over that offer.
I wrote earlier that I appreciate good graphic design as much as the next guy, but that’s not why I buy a bottle of wine. If Jacky Truchot’s wines sucked, I’d still like the labels and continue to admire them… right there on the store shelves (not in my shopping basket).
But really, are we talking about aesthetic appreciation of a well-designed label, or about impressing our friends? I think my tasting group friends would be more than happy if I had a cellar-full of shiners (unlabeled bottles) from Leflaive, Lafon, Leroy, RC, etc.
I have a solo bottle of that 2007 Alex Gambal Clos Vougeot but resisted the idea of opening it during Vougeot week. I enjoyed it at a tasting in Durham, NC with Alex present.