|
|
biggest clients (in terms of production)
use more than 35,000 cases per year of
ACL-decorated glass.
“Benefits of ACL decoration include
360° utilization of the bottle surface,
perfect registration, and labels that
cannot be torn, scuffed, wrinkled, or
soaked off the bottle surface,” adds
Mike Bergin. “ACL eliminates labeling
problems during bottling, and shipment
of case goods can arrive in good
condition even when, as sometimes
happens, one bottle in the case breaks
or leaks. The other bottles can be
wiped clean and sold.”
|
ncredible value wines of high
quality are the goal of Reed
Renaudin, president and winemaker
of X Winery in Napa, CA.
The winery produced 15,000 cases of
wine in the 2009 harvest for sale in
fine-wine shops, restaurants, and a
downtown Napa tasting room.
Renaudin, with an MBA from Cal
Poly (San Luis Obispo, CA) and a
fermentation science degree from
UC Davis, hadworked in severalNapa
Valley wineries before starting
X Winery in 2000.
“I created X Winery to bring efficiency
and imagination to making
wines that over-deliver on quality,”
says Renaudin. “The wines come from
years of experimentation, and represent
my desire for innovation, the
value of new technology, and my passion
for excellence. Each year, we try to
continue to improve, through research,
with a goal to produce wines that are
very drinkable, and deliver value for
the money.”
Packaging
For consumers, the initial impression
of X wines is the packaging, which
is eye-catching, modern, and suggests
high-tech. The winery’s “green” efforts
include purchasing ECO Series glass
from Saint-Gobain Containers —
lighter-weight bottles that reduce the
packaging’s carbon footprint by up to
25%.
“The slick design and lighter bottle
weight allow for more bottles per truck
and increased shipping units, reducing
excess trucking,” Renaudin reports.
“We like that the bottles are produced
right here in the U.S. (Washington and
California).”
Screwcaps with a saranex liner are
applied to all wines under $20 (approximately
65% of production) except for
the white blend wine that receives a
screwcap with tin liner. Screwcap
application began with the 2008
Amicus red Bordeaux blend.
Natural corks that are FSC- and
Rainforest Alliance-
|
Applied color labeling
(ACL) is a method of labeling,
lettering, or decorating a bottle
by applying a mixture of
borosilicate glass and mineral
or organic pigments (and other
substances) with a low melting
point, to a bottle through a
metal screen, and then baking
it in a furnace to formwhat can
appear to be a “painted label.”
Powdered thermal plastic
inks flow through a mesh
screen (the term “silk screen”
is outdated). With application
of heat, the ink changes from
powder form into liquid, and
is forced onto the bottle surface
as it is rolled under the screen.
One color can be printed over
another color repeatedly.
“The mosaic design for X
Winery created by Ray Gonzales in
2003 is unique,” explains Mike Bergin,
owner of Bergin Glass Impressions
(Napa, CA). Gonzales, who was art
director at Bergin Glass Impressions, is
now an independent designer on Long
Island, NY. Gonzales suggested a different
color for each variety.
The first shipment from Bergin
Glass to X Winery of the new mosaic
package was 2003 for 2001 vintage bottling.
Bergin produces two formats for
X Winery: one-color mosaic for wines
under $20/retail and a multi-color
mosaic pattern for wines over
$20/retail.
Bergin decorates more than 5 million
bottles per year. The cost of ACL
bottle decoration, for production from
500 to 10,000 cases, price-competes
with printed paper labels. Beyond
10,000 cases, ACL decorating is more
expensive because of large volume
pricing of printed labels. Bergin’s
|
