The 2025 PACK Design Awards put the spotlight on the most innovative and creative labels in the industry — and this year, our work earned three award-winning spots on the podium!  1st Place – Best Classic Format Design: Jaws Wine Spritzer  1st Place – Best Series: Gnarly Head x Grateful Dead  3rd Place – Best Series: Jaws Collection These wins celebrate the design excellence and cooperation that go into every label. A huge thank-you to Delicato Family Wines and Fior di Sole for the collaboration — we’re excited to create even more standout projects together! 

Afternoon Brief, August 10th

Santa Barbara Commandeers and Destroys Illegally Submerged Wine Bottles; Perpetrators Accept Plea Deal: Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that, in accordance with a plea agreement, it destroyed 2,000 bottles of wine and other alcohol illegally possessed for sale in connection with an illegal underwater wine aging and sale operation...

Gnarly Head Wines and the Grateful Dead Release Limited Edition Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel with Glow-Under-Blacklight Labels

Second Vintage of Collaboration Features the Deads Iconic Dancing Bear and Lightning Bolt-Skull Motifs in Collectible Bottles that Come to Life

This year has been a little weird. We got a lot of rain and up until recently it’s been markedly cold. How different is it though? One thing I like to keep in mind is that the last few years have been hot and early. Perhaps this is just a normal year and we’ve forgotten what normal looks like. Although there’s been some argument about its importance, the Winkler Growing Degree Day formula allows us to compare different seasons using the same metric. Growing Degree Days (GDD) are calculated by subtracting the grapevines’ threshold temperature (50°F) from the daily mean temperature. The chart below compares growing degree days from 2014 to July 25, 2023 (today) in Alexander Valley, Sonoma County (Data from Western Weather Group). That’s pretty different. The average GDDs at this point in the season for the last nine years is about 1650. Currently we are at 1368. What about in other parts of the state? Here’s a comparison of the last few years in P

I’ve recently been receiving some wonderful feedback from designers with whom I’ve worked over many years, so I thought I’d share a few. Here’s one from Tony Auston, founder and creative director of Auston Design Group in Oakland, CA. Auston has designed labels and packaging for some of the region’s leading wine and spirits brands, including Dry Creek Vineyard, Gnarly Head, and Bogle Vineyards, among others.  He has worked with me for over 25 years and it has always been a pleasure to work with him. He is exceptional at creative design and respects the input of the bottle maker, which is crucial to get a project moving forward and across the finish line. Here’s Tony in his own words:             “Erica and I met in the early 1990s while I was working on the brand development and package design program for the former Carneros Alambic Distillery. She was the Brandy Maker at that time. Soon after that she ma

Afternoon Brief, June 16th

How Russia’s War on Ukraine Threatens Decades of Winemaking Progress: Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the war has caused incomprehensible losses: millions of displaced citizens, thousands of dead and wounded, as well as the destruction of untold buildings and houses, to say nothing of entire cities and towns...

Gnarly Head Wines and the Grateful Dead Announce Partnership to Launch Two Limited-Edition Gnarly Wines 

LODI, Calif., Jun. 16, 2022—Gnarly Head®, a producer of bold California wines from gnarly old vines, announced today a partnership with iconic American rock band, the Grateful Dead, to release […]