Monthly Archives: May 2010

10 Signs Your Business is Failing & How to Recover

Although we are seeing signs of general economic recovery, the last year has been a hard slog for small winery and vineyard owners. In an economic downturn, the luxury good, hospitality, and travel industries are often the hardest hit. Among our associates, chins are held high and stories of silver linings abound. But industry vendors and salesmen are telling a different story–one of back payments requiring COD status, higher returns, down trending sales, and equipment foreclosures.

Now more than ever, it’s important to have a clear-eyed view of your business’ health, ratios and sales trends. In a climate where bankers are looking at every new loan application with a jaundiced eye, and subjecting renewals to greater scrutiny, it’s important to be able to identify and address each of the signs that your bankers will be looking at. Even if you feel that your sales and bottom line are healthy, you may be surprised to see your business in a different light by applying some of the ratios below. And if your business really is healthy, then you should be able to present these ratios with pride and explain what you are doing to protect and increase them.

Read the full article and download the white paper by Debra Ellis.

Source :: Central Coast Wine Blogs

Tupelo Wine

Tupelo Wine 1

Tupelo Wine 2

Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis, known for it’s savage floods, Tupelo trees and now, a new wine brand. Wayne Anderson (aka Killibinbin) wanted to set up a new boutique winery, Tupelo. A producer of limited production fine wines. The idea; simple photographic underwater imagery, of an Elvis inspired character, surrounded by the flood waters of the king’s home town; an imaginative reflection of the flooded market for Australian wines.

The Identity has been left in a simple text form to let the striking imagery work as a part of the branding across packaging and other applications. Keeping the logo simple meant the 2 elements of logo and imagery did not compete with each other, rather, they work together to create Tupelo’s visual identity.

Design by Mash | Source :: Lovely Package

Ipacs Winery

Ipacs Winery

Ipacs Winery is a young, emerging, dynamic developing and already successful winery led by an ambitious owner.

Our task was to design the CI and the packaging for the winery. Neither the package-technology nor the budget of Ipacs can rival with the historic wineries. Thus the designer’s goal was to make advantage of the disadvantage. The quite unusual flag-like label was born thanks to this pressure. The label holds all important information so the tag on the bottle could concentrate exclusively on the branding.

New work designed by Tamás Veress of Café Design

Source :: www.thedieline.com

The Malcolm Wine

The Malcolm Wine 1

The Malcolm Wine 2

The Malcolm Wine 3

The Malcolm represents the super premium product under the Magpie Estate Brand. This product needed to sit separately from the other wines in the range. The logo type remains consistent as a secondary element, however the bottle design and printing methods depart from the other Magpie Estate wines. A beautiful imported French bottle was chosen, the bird illustration and text details were screen printed. No paper labels were used, even the back label details are screen printed.

Design by Mash | Source :: Lovely Package

Danie De Wet Good Hope Range

Danie De Wet Good Hope Range

For a new series of fresh young wines South Africa’s winemaking legend Danie de Wet wanted a unique label combining simple elegance, vitality and a stylish overall appearance. The four stripes in different angles create a dynamic appeal and remind of a hand grabbing the bottle. The unconventional shape and the silver colour of the logo stripe create the modern part of the feel. The crest and the off white colour in the rest of the stripes transport the heritage of Danie de Wet’s estate.”

Designed by Glasmeyer, Jung, Schreiter Kiel GmbH

Source :: www.thedieline.com

Brujeria Wine

Brujeria Wine

This is Brujeria (the Spanish word for witchcraft) from Misfits Wine Co. A Soul Retrieval Nostrum. Ancient arts and dark fruits forged through toil to respond to clichéd and lifeless marketing department wines. Formed whole in light and dark to strike fear into drones and hex the elitist wine types.

Inspiration draws from Latin witchcraft posters. This release from Misfits Wine Co has been created to stand out and tie into their ethos; the rejection of the conventional. For our client testimonial; one of the Misfits owners had the branding tattooed (where we don’t know). Timeless!

Design by Mash | Source :: Lovely Package

Suikerbossie

Suikerbossie 1

Suikerbossie 2

Suikerbossie 3

This champagne label was designed to accompany an individual marriage proposal, but after seeing the label, Boer and Brit made it into a full range.

“The title ‘Suikerbossie ek wil jou he’ is an Afrikaans folk song that translates to ‘Sugarbush I want you so’. A sugarbush is a Protea flower, which also happens to be South Africa’s national flower.”

Source :: Lovely Package

Local Wines Made From Amateurs Grapes

Urban Wine Company

Regular readers may recall City Winery, the winery-cum-wine bar in New York City that lets consumers crush, ferment, bottle and label their own bottles of wine. City Winery customers typically use grapes sourced by the company from vineyards around the world, but a UK contender focuses on making wine from grapes locally grown by consumers themselves.

Aiming to support consumers interested in locally made wines, the Urban Wine Company collects grapes from oenophiles all over London and the southeast UK and presses them collectively according to variety each October. Consumers with productive vines growing in their yards or allotments can join the Urban Wine Company as producer members; in exchange, they’re entitled to six bottles of collectively produced wine, vine care news and updates, and invitations to exclusive events, including tastings and tours. Wines are produced in partnership with professional vineyards, but consumers can choose the label they’d like on their own bottles, which are typically delivered in March. Membership fees are GBP 65, according to a report in CNN. For those without existing vines, there’s even an option to have one provided by Urban Wine, the company says.

By last fall, Urban Wine Company’s membership had reached almost 200, CNN reported, yielding a harvest of about a ton of grapes. Prospects for growth seem promising, too, given the combined bouquet of a compelling status story, an eco-minded effort and some heady (still) made here appeal. One to emulate for the grape-growing oenophiles near you…?

Source :: www.springwise.com