A new frontier for custom wine labels

An American wine group has taken wine and art to the next level employing the talents of an expressionist painter to create a series of unique wine bottles.

John Terlato, vice chairman of Terlato Wine Group in Lake Bluff, Illinois, has teamed up with expressionist painter Rene Romero Schuler to create a series of unique wine bottles, Chicago Business reported.

The 21 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from Terlato Family vineyards in Napa Valley’s Stag’s Leap district, priced at $800 (£490), each feature an individual piece of Schuler’s art as a label.

Terlato explained his reasoning behind the project: “I enjoy art because it causes me to think and when it provokes a thought, then I buy art.”

“I respond to art the way I respond to wine,” he said.

Every bottle is unique

The collaboration began over a Starbucks coffee: “We were comparing how her art is visible and enjoyed, and causes people to think and talk, and our wines are the same.”

“I was drawing parallels between wine and art and I thought, ‘Why don’t we put your art on the outside of a bottle?’ I have the art inside so we’ll create something really unique,” said Terlato.

Terlato wanted a wine that has longevity since the bottle would be a collectible and he chose Terlato Family vintners because it’s from “the best grapes from the best vineyards”.

The family only produces about 800 cases on the estate but that was just right for the select bottles Terlato wanted to use to showcase Schuler’s art: “I wanted to put original works of art on a small micro-production wine of high quality that has aging potential.”

He also spent time figuring out what buyers might think: “Would they buy the bottle and keep it and then open it at some point in time? Would they buy it and store it?”

“Aside from putting it on a shelf to show off artwork, invariably it will end up on the table,” he said.