In The Winery • November - December 2013
Crafting a More Creative Label Etching & Screen Printing Processes Offer Winemakers Innovative Branding Options By Jessica Jones-Gorman
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creen printed bottles are not exactly a traditional packaging option for winemakers: The multi-color template and all of its floating icons and in-your-face fonts aren’t made to represent storied vintages. But looming on the shelf among hundreds of ink-and-paper-pasted varieties, competing for the attention of a young, trendy wine drinker, modern label makers say the screen printed bottle has become a successful marketing and branding tool.
“When you’re shipping a palette of wine and one bottle breaks, it usually pours through four or five cases, spattering all of the paper labels and rendering them unsellable,” Bergin said. “If a screen printed bottle breaks, you wipe it off and rebox the wine. No stains, no losses.” There’s also a 360º design surface to work with and vertical height surface 1/2” inch from base of the bottle to the shoulder. The bottle design
“When a consumer is shopping for wine at the grocery store or wine market, they’re almost blinded by paper labels because there are simply so many,” noted Mike Bergin, President and CEO of Bergin Glass Impressions, Inc., a Napa Valley-based commercial wine label printer which specializes in artisan etching and screen printed labeling. “A screen printed bottle stands out because it’s something different,” Bergin continued. “Buyers are intrigued by the packaging and that’s critical because it’s what draws the consumer in. I would say at least 75 percent of the buy is based on packaging alone.” Screen printing, also known as ACL – applied color labeling, is a process by which ceramic paint is applied directly to the surface of a bottle and fired through a furnace. After firing at temperatures of up to 1180° F, the label design is permanently fused to the glass. The unique look serves as a pretty significant brand builder, Bergin says, and the paperless wine labels are favored by clients and designers who want flexibility and creativity far beyond what paper or pressure sensitive labels can offer. But the pros of the process extend way beyond branding. “When you’re bottling wine the achilles heel is always the labeler,” Bergin told The Grapevine Magazine. “The corners can peel, the paper can scuff or get roughed up. They’re also pressure sensitive and can wrinkle. In addition if you’re bottling the wine really cold, you have to worry about condensation. That’s why from a production standpoint, screen printing is such a dream. There’s no bubbling, tearing or crooked labels to worry about. A screen printed label does not degrade. Store it in a dusty cellar for 10 years, you can wipe it with a soft cloth and it will look like it was just printed last week. Plus, breakage worries and the resulting collateral damage is also lessened.
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The Grapevine • November - December 2013
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