A nd still those weird, unusual and inventive labels keep appearing on the wine shelves. Thank goodness! Enjoy the following....

Wine & Recipe Selection

Spain

front labels

What a brilliant idea, and so well executed. This ordinary Spanish red wine has a recipe on the back label for a traditional dish of the region, Castillan-Style Paprika Chicken with a picture of the finished dish on the front. And both labels are designed to be easily peeled off to be stuck in a recipe book, leaving just the top front label on the wine for when its on the table. The recipe is one a series. Supermarket chain Sainsbury's are to be congratulated on this innovative marriage of food and wine. back recipe label

Cletrac	California
We hear a lot about how a wine is made, the importance of the terroir, the grape varieties, the angle of the vineyard slope etc. But when did you ever read about the equipment used to harvest those grapes? This winery pays tribute to Cletrac tractors and farm equipment, boasting proudly that the wine was grown and harvested using only Cletrac equipment. The winery owner is a member of the Cleveland Tractor owner's club and bottled a group of his wine for fellow members of the club. This is from one of some extra bottles he sold from the winery. Again, many thanks to Patrick McGinnis in the US for another fascinating label.

Bicycle Blanc	Nevada
An interesting label to celebrate the 25th Classic bike race held in Nevada City a small historical silver mining town in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 40 miles west and slightly north of Lake Tahoe. Thanks to Richard Bugg in the US for emailing this label.

Under the Table	South Africa
Amusing pun; the table is Cape Town's Table Mountain and the young man is supposed to be relaxing on the beach. Ruby Cabernet is a recent Cabernet Sauvignon - Carignan cross which the back label optimistically calls South Africa's own grape although it has insignificant plantings there. The featured young man seems to travel a lot, we've seen those legs and red shorts before - see Scraping the Barrel. The wine is a bright bluish purple with a fruity taste that demands quaffing.

SinZin	California
This attractive label just makes me want to open a bottle and enjoy the wine within. Another label that punned Sin with Zin is Cardinal Zin on page 1. Thanks for this label to Gregory, who tells me the original label was printed in black and white, and the man was being fed grapes by a nude woman. If anyone has a copy of that one I'd like to see it.

Prosperity

California

I loved this label, inspired by popular artwork of the 1930's used to symbolise the resilience of the American spirirt during economic hardship. I bought Prosperity Red at my local Majestic store where it is an exclusive. Then I saw the same label on Eric Andersen's site. The US label shows the winery name as Firestone, whereas the UK label it is given as Prosperiry Wines but with the same address as the US label. Why? Who knows. Perhaps different blends, perhaps Firestone has an exclusive deal with another UK agent. The UK blend is 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, the remainder is made up of Zinfandel and Grenache. And very pleasant it is too. Thanks to Eric Andersen who kindly let me use the US label from his site (US label - top left, UK label - bottom right)