Wine labels and wine

I feel so excited as I near the end of the label design process for my homemade wine. I wish I could share an image of where we've gotten to so far, but I'm going to wait until it's just right.

Doing a label is a tedious process for me. Honestly, I hate most wine labels. OK, I'll be reasonable. I dislike most of them. To the point where I don't even notice them really.

The few I do find interesting are usually the most old school of things, totally not commercially acceptable I'm sure. Marc Olliver's red wine from the Loire Valley, for example. Of course, I can't find an image online anywhere and I'm too lazy to take a picture of it. Nevermind. I heard he's changed the label. It probably didn't help sales.

Really, I want something old school France, but without all the text the French require for AOC and other purposes. So I'm going with something very simple, classic but still unique. I'm hopeful for that, anyway. Stay tuned.

For inspiration, I opened a bottle of 2002 Vincent (love that name) Prunier Auxey-Duresses, from a less exalted town on the Beaune side of the Burgundy's Cote d'Or.

First, I like the simplicity of the label and the classic script font. Hint, hint.

Second, this was really nice, little wine. It had a beautiful cherry and mushroom aroma, showing some maturity. The flavor was brightly acidic with clean cherry fruit and earth notes and great subtlety.

What pretty wine, not a powerhouse or blockbuster, rather fragrant and silky and not unlike some more Burgundian wines from here in Oregon. The main difference was the acidic spine that we rarely get, naturally anyway. The acid probably scares people away, but I like it.

My 2006 pinot noir doesn't taste anything like this. Not that it should. I'm making Oregon wine.

But my 2007 is much more bright and, yes, acidic. I'm a little scared of it myself, but a good friend in the wine business tried it and was very reassuring. He likes what I'll call the nerve in this wine.

That 2007 is still in barrel, hopefully adding some flesh to its prominent bones. We'll see where it ends up. I do know this. It's going to have a label with similar nerve.