Wine Labels and Varietal Names

[KatieLoeb]

Randall:

Thanks so much for joining us here at eGullet. It's a real treat to get to pick your brain a little bit...

On that note - I've always wondered what inspires your varietal names and wine labels. The "Heart of Darkness" Madiran for example. Or the great illustrations of the penitentiary and the knotted sheets coming out of the window on the "Big House" wines. Do you have an illustrator who suggests these ideas to you, or is it the other way around? Do you tell someone what you've envisioned and have them give you sketches? The labels are only part of the fun regarding your wines. The real fun starts when you open the bottles! I've been a big fan of your winery and wines for years. Thanks again for your time and your thoughts.

[Randall Grahm]

Dear Katie,

Thanks very much for your very kind words. Generally the work on the label is a collaborative effort (except w/ Ralph Steadman, who is a genius sui generis). Sometimes the artist will come up w/ a concept and I will help him work it through or sometimes I will have the idea or my colleague, John Locke, will also come up with a concept for a label. (He has been mostly responsible for the art direction on the DEWN labels.) Generally the wine itself will dictate the content of the label, but it is embarrassing to say, sometimes there is a label concept that is so compelling, that I will have to go out and make a wine to accomodate the brilliant label idea. Cheers, R.

[tanabutler]

sometimes there is a label concept that is so compelling, that I will have to go out and make a wine to accomodate the brilliant label idea. 

I think this is one of the coolest things you have ever said, and that is saying something.

Can you please give an example (or an exhaustive inventory) of these labels/wines?

Thanks, Randall.

[KatieLoeb]

Generally the wine itself will dictate the content of the label, but it is embarrassing to say, sometimes there is a label concept that is so compelling, that I will have to go out and make a wine to accomodate the brilliant label idea.

Randall:

Don't be embarassed! Thanks for answering the question that I myself, didn't even realize I was asking!

I think it's brilliant, brave, crazy and silly to do things this way, but it somehow doesn't surprise me in the least!

[Randall Grahm]

Dear Katie and Tana,

Putting myself back in the way-back machine, I think back on the Old Telegram label. It was the original working title for Cigare Volant, but I came upon the funny story of Chateauneuf du Pape and the prohibition of the landing of flying saucers. I didn't want to waste the label so I was compelled to make a wine - in this case an old vine mourvedre, where that label would serve. I'm having difficulty thinking of other historical instances where the label was truly precedent to the wine, however I have recently caused to have plant 10 acres of tannat grapes in the relatively warmish area of Tracy, CA so that I might produce a wine called, "So, What's Tannat Like?" Best, R.