Thoughts on Wine Labels: Part 1 -- the new releases.

Thought on Wine labels ... So ... I think we've finally gotten it right. And yet I hesitate to say that, since it's been seventeen years of label evolution. I'm really happy with the labels now, and I finally think we have it dialed in, but it got me thinking. What finally changed? Why did it take so long for me to feel like we'd finally found a match between our brand and our label. And how crazy is it that it took seventeen years for it to evolve to a place where I was finally happy with it, like truly and fundamentally happy with it?

I don't really have the answers to these questions. The Great Diety above must have had some plan for it, but lord if I know. I absolutely wish that we could have shown up on day 1 with our 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon with this label, and never changed or diverged in any way -- I really do -- but Crosby Roamann has been an adventure and a mystery to me in so many respects that just wasn't our path. The good news is, however, I really believe we're finally there. So let's take a look at it -- what we love about them, how we got there, and why.

First off, I'm really happy we dropped the Sean W McBride line of wines. We've gone back to Crosby Roamann for all our branding, and it makes we so happy. I was never really thrilled to have my own name on the labels -- it just felt wrong. sure, I had my reasons for it, and believe me, NONE of them were vanity. They were good reasons, which I won't go into now, but ultimately Crosby Roamann and Sean W. McBride just didn't work as a branding idea. It really started to make sense to me when we went for dinner at a long time restaurant account, and despite the fact that they carried all our wines -- Bon Ton, Crosby Roamann, and Sean W. McBride -- everyone referred to me as "Mr. Crosby." It was at that point that I realized that no matter what I did, or put on the label, most people would still think of me, personally, as "Crosby Roamann." So why not lean into it? And that's what we did.

Second, I love the copper foil tone and the warmth it brings to the brand. And the roses seem to have come out just right in the full-bleed print, rather than the inverse/outline we have been printing since 2016. Third, I love the script on the varietal and the appellation. Fourth, I love the color and the font of the vintage. Fifth, I love the copper border matching the roses. And lastly, it just all WORKS together, aesthetically, it just reads, finally, as what I had imagined, but never been able to visualize conceptually, all those years ago.

If there was one thing I would change (aha! Here I go again ...) I might add a UPC code to the bottom left of the wrap -- I'm sure it would help sales in places like Whole Foods, but aesthetically, I'm happy it's not there. Some things like UPC codes and "romance copy" remind me I'm buying a "product" and not a piece of "art," and I prefer the latter.