In The Eye Of The Bottle-holder

The Age

Tuesday November 25, 2008

Jeni Port

Australian wine labels must change to catch drinkers' eyes in competitive markets. By Jeni Port

EYES do not deceive. They perceive. When American wine writer Josh Raynolds casts his critic's eye over a bottle of Luchador South Australian shiraz - with a label that looks like a poster for a Mexican wrestling match (below left) - he sees an "embarrassment" to the Australian wine industry.

When Sydney wine retailer Mike Bennie of Best Cellars looks at Luchador, he sees a "creative" and "contemporary" look for Australian wines.

I look at Luchador (a Mexican name for wrestlers, pronounced loo-char-door) and I see a bank hold-up.

It's the mask.

When Dan Philips of The Grateful Palate, a California-based wine importer and the guy behind the label, walks past a bottle of Luchador, it's usually on his way to the bank and he has a trolley load of cash trailing him. This is because wines such as Luchador, Bitch, Evil Incarnate and SUXX - all Australian and all red - are tearing up the wine charts with wine drinkers of a certain age in the United States. The reason? They get the contemporary and creative look he is trying to achieve.

These wine drinkers are mostly aged 25 to 30. They listen to music by the Stone Roses, Eminem and Jay-Z, which is possibly why Philips chose Morning Breath, the CD design team behind some of the world's biggest music artists, to create his labels, including Luchador.

His motivation was an off-the-cuff comment from his warehouse manager (aged in his 30s), who came to Philips' office one day and said that his buddies used to drink beer while they watched the Lakers but had switched over to wine. "Why don't you make a wine for us?" he asked.

Philips, who recalls the story on his website gratefulpalate.com, then asked, "How do you want it?" and "How much do you want to pay?"

The answer was "big" and around $US15 ($A23).

The guy in the backroom didn't specifically ask for an Australian wine.

He didn't want to know about the winemaker (Chris Ringland) or the grape variety or what oak treatment it had (12 months French and American) - questions that wine drinkers of an older generation might probably ask.

What he got was a wine that will, as it says on the back label, "body slam your tongue".

So much for appreciating the deep purple colour, smelling the powerful bouquet of blackberry and spice and taking in those persistent, fine-grain tannins . . .

The Australian wine label is changing.

It has to.

Labels once perceived as cutting-edge aren't cutting it any more.

In Europe and the US, wine drinkers aren't just "crittered out" with our furry marsupial labels, they're disgruntled and if they could, they'd probably demand their money back.

"At some point, the (Australian) industry seemed to pay more attention to the labels than the wine," suggests a recent story highly critical of Australian wines in The Wall Street Journal. As Australian wine labels got "cuter and cuter", the authors argue, so too our wines gave up any pretense to quality.

At home, the competition doesn't get any easier. Australian wines are competing with the Spanish and the Italians, two countries who know how to make an entrance. Today, "Sexy Spanish" is the alliteration on everyone's lips, as if Antonio Banderas was somehow responsible for personally pressing the grapes in every wine.

"Australian-based label designers were once considered the best in the world," says Paul Henry, general manager, market development, with the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, who is responsible for Australia's global wine marketing.

"I think the critter labels have cast a shadow and, in some instances, restrained people from being creative."

American wine writer Josh Raynolds - he's the guy, remember, who despises the Luchador label - believes Australian wines are now running the risk of being stereotyped. "And the last thing you should do is live up to a stereotype," he says.

So, the Aussie sun-fun menagerie look has to go. It might help if the stereotypical sweet, highly alcoholic reds disappeared too. We can only dream.

Perhaps our image would soar if Australian winemakers invested a little more money into packaging and marketing?

What the eye perceives can have a liberating effect on our purse strings.

High-end French perfume makers, the masters of opening wallets, reportedly plough 50% of the sales price of a bottle of perfume back into packaging and marketing. With Champagne makers it's 20%. The makers of spirits reinvest 12%, breweries 8% and winemakers, around 3% to 5%, hardly bother at all. If it's a choice between a new French barrel or employing a graphic designer, guess the winner?

But some producers are thinking more and more like the Champenoise and Chanel.

Rutherglen fortified-wine maker All Saints Estate has given its museum liqueur muscat and tokay, using blending material dating back to 1920, a major makeover and reclaiming them, it says, as something special. "We are treating them like luxury goods," says chief executive Eliza Brown, who has drawn her inspiration from prestige Cognac makers.

Brown has chosen a new 500-millilitre Bruni Italian glass bottle - likened to a very big, very expensive perfume bottle with a gold-plated pewter pourer - and a $1000 price tag. "This is how fortifieds should be treated," she says, "like very special gems."

Just 500 bottles will be released each year and most are targeted for sales in the US.

Early next year The Grateful Palate saddles up with its own $1000 bottle of wine. Not surprisingly, given Dan Philips' Australian business partner is winemaker Chris Ringland, it's a Barossa shiraz. From the 2005 vintage, it will come in a limited-edition, hand-engraved bottle.

The wine, promises marketing manager Rachel Harvey, will "over-deliver".

Australian wines wanting to swim in the same prestige pool as the Europeans will most certainly have to over-deliver on quality, but the ultra-premium market is tiny and there's plenty of everyday Aussie wine out there to sell to the world as well as at home.

What is needed is a new look at the Australian wine identity through the wine label. Paul Henry of Wine Australia has something in mind.

"What we have to find is a sense of courage and adventure," he suggests. "What is quintessentially Australian is irreverence, not cliche."

Funny thing, but Australian wines used to scream these qualities from the bottle shelves. Once, they easily passed what marketers refer to as the "three-foot test". You're standing three feet in front of a couple of hundred bottles of wine with cash to spend and a thirst. What are you going to choose?

Courage, adventure, irreverence . . . such labels do exist.

First Drop Wines in the Barossa Valley brings a separate and exciting personality to all of its wines with names like Mother's Milk, 2% and Minchia. The Hesketh Wine Company embraces modern (non-stereotypical) Australian artwork well on its labels, while Red Heads from McLaren Vale is simply out there on labels like Viottolo, Whip Hand and Yard Dog.

And you don't have to be a small boutique maker to explore new territory. Take a look at The Bandit range of wines from Houghton, part of Constellation Wines Australia.

Mornington Peninsula newcomer Underground Winemakers wanted the freedom to do crazy, subversive things - like making a durif from Swan Hill fruit - and their labels had to capture that departure from the mainstream.

"I think that what we are doing appeals to a younger demographic; however, it seems to go beyond that to anyone looking for a bold and new story," says Peter Stebbing, winemaker at Underground. He refers to labels such as "Thug" pinot noir, "Dr Durif", "Cab Merl Oh" and "Rose-eh!", all designed by noted Melbourne graphic artist Ken Cato.

Once, Australian wine labels captured the world. They reflected and enhanced our winemaking and philosophy.

They can again, but perhaps it means starting with a blank canvas, devoid of any iconic imagery.

Marketers such as Rory Kent of V-Know want to break with convention and be disruptive.

"Why do we even need to put text on the front of the bottle?" he asks.

Kent is the driver behind Wine By Design, an annual event that matches a dozen artistic types - fashion designers, chefs, photographers - with well-known wines and gives them carte blanche to interpret and create their own wine labels.

It's all in the name of charity, for now.

Some day soon you might be standing in front of a couple of hundred bottles of wine with cash to spend and a thirst and one of these decorator bottles might be in the mix.

What are you going to choose?

The language of the Aussie label

Hip Young Thing Wild White 2008

"Grab it by the horns and enjoy" . . . this Hunter Valley verdelho from biodynamic winemaker Krinklewood doesn't take itself too seriously. It's eyeing the sub-25-year-olds where packaging is so important and its modern look and cute cover beasty should do the trick.

Old School Stanton and Killeen Rutherglen 2005 Durif

The gold embossing, the prominent gold and trophy show gongs and bold lettering that scream "old school". Stanton and Killeen was founded in 1875. It's a solid, family-owned, small winemaker of classy North-East reds and fortifieds. The label is impervious to trends, fashion or, worse, the arrival of a new wine marketer.

Connoisseur Teusner 2006 "Albert"

The label features the "big boys", the age-old Barossa Valley vines that are the heart and soul of Teusner. When first shown to a printer, the design was questioned because it didn't conform to "design principles". The label is resolutely understated. The wine speaks for itself.

Classic Eileen Hardy 2006 Chardonnay

There have been a couple of changes to the Eileen Hardy chardonnay label since its first vintage in 1984, and its latest incarnation has a timeless, classic appeal. It is elegant in white and features fine embossing, indicating it is serious in both taste and price ($70).

Endangered Species Yellowtail 2007 Shiraz

To us, it's just another marsupial, but legions of drinkers in Europe and the United States fell for the furry charm of our animals on labels such as Yellowtail. They were fun, attractive, and instantly shouted "Australia". So did the wines. Now, they're not so much fun as (to quote one US writer) "caricature".

Look-a-Like Hoddles Creek Estate "1er Yarra Valley" 2008 Pinot Blanc

Our wines have names beginning with Chateau and labels that imitated the style and Old World character of France and the Premier Crus of Chablis and Bordeaux ("1er Cru"). Here, pinot blanc from the Yarra Valley gets an Alsatian makeover a la Louis Sipp with a premier cru classification thrown in.

Femme-tastic Logan 2008 Hannah Rose

Orange winemaker Peter Logan tops polls with female drinkers everywhere with in his pretty pink, ultra-feminine label and wine. The embroidered chain of flowers in pinks and reds spells Logan on the front.Swing to the back and Pete tells how he made the rose for wife Hannah to drink on their wedding day. Aww . . .

© 2008 The Age

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