How the wine label became an art form

Walk down the aisles of any wine shop and you may well be as mesmerised by the variety of label design, which has evolved into an art form in itself, as you are befuddled by the choice on offer.

It’s all about grabbing our attention, as John Casella is well aware.

Casella’s family started making wine in Italy in the 1820s, before setting up in Australia after the second world war, and he has spent the best part of his life watching the wine industry grow into the 32 billion-bottles-a-year beast (worth an estimated US$303 billion annually) it is now.

In 2000, Casella turned the focus of his winery towards an American market that had only recently developed a thirst for wine. Having been concerned mostly with the habits of Australian drinkers, Casella looked at the figures rising out of the United States and decided to take the plunge with a prod­uct that might appeal “to young-at-heart, casual wine drink­ers and potential new drinkers”. (The US market has since proved near unquenchable, becoming the world’s largest, with an annual average consumption of 12 litres per person.)

“To stand out on the shelf, I knew we had to differentiate Yellow Tail from the traditional wine bottles that were crowding the market,” says Casella. “The wine style was approachable and easy to drink, and I wanted to ensure that the brand visually conveyed the same message to consumers; that Yellow Tail was a fun and non-traditional wine brand.”