Drinking With Your Eyes: How Wine Labels Trick Us Into Buying

(CapRadio) - There's a whole slew of mind games that label designers use to get us to think better of their wines without ever tasting a sip. Want to add 10 bucks to the price of a bottle? Class it up with some gold stamping on that label. An insider spills the industry's secrets in a gorgeous photo book.

We're all guilty of it. Even if we don't want to admit it, we've all been suckered into grabbing a bottle of wine off the grocery store shelf just because of what's on the label. Seriously, who can resist the "see no evil" monkeys on a bottle of Pinot Evil?

But the tricks that get us to buy a $9 bottle of chardonnay — or splurge on a $40 pinot noir — are way more sophisticated than putting a clever monkey on the cover.

A carefully crafted label can make us think the bottle is way more expensive than it is, and it can boost our enjoyment of the wine itself, says David Schuemann of CF Napa Brand Design, who has been designing wine packaging for more than a decade.

In his new book 99 Bottles of Wine, Schuemann spills the industry's secrets about how wine labels tickle our subconscious and coerce us into grabbing them off the shelf. The book is also a feast for the eyes, with about a hundred photographs of the sleekest, most eye-catching wine labels in the business.

"We always make a wine look about $10 more expensive than it is. So then it appears like an even better value," Schuemann tells The Salt. "We add gold foil to the label or a gold stamping. We emboss the label or add a third dimension to give it a rich texture or tactile feel."

In general, people associate minimalist, uncluttered designs with high-end vintages and sophisticated flavors, Schuemann says. "More expensive labels tend to have a cream or white background with a simple logo. Maybe a splash of gold or metal. But they don't have critters on them. Otherwise, experienced wine drinkers think it looks cheap."

But for less-accomplished oenophiles who are still experimenting with wine, the bottle needs to "pop" off the shelf more, Schuemann says. So his team makes the labels more colorful and louder for wines under $10. "They're whimsical in a clever way," he says. "And we'll still add a bit of gold foil to show the quality."