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some people like their wine dry. some people like their wine oaky. some people like their wine earthy with moderate tannins.

i like my wine to be well-labelled. and if the producing winery has a nice website, bonus points.

so here are ten favourites.

ten: mad housewife
flavours: merlot, chardonnay, white zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon
easy to come by and inexpensive, mad housewife comes in a variety of flavours, each with its own clever notquiteright housewife photo. their website isn’t great, but they get bonus points for their serial labelling.

nine: the maitre d
flavour: cabernet sauvignon
one of many great wines from mollydooker wines, the maitre d’s label is all around good design. good use of pattern, typography and imagery, with a touch of humour to boot. it gets bonus points, of course, for the website.

eight: the innocent bystander
flavour: sangiovese merlot, shiraz viognier, pinot gris and pinot rosé
simple and elegant, the innocent bystander’s design is a combination of careful stencilling and serendipitous ink splatter. the site, unfortunately, doesn’t follow the same minimalist approach.

seven: bitch
flavour: grenache
perhaps i only like this wine because of its provocative title, all in pink. and the seventyseven repetitions of the word “bitch” on the back. more likely, it’s the bottle’s alternating dagger heart dagger heart border. you can find this barossa grenache at the grateful palate, but the sweet little red doesn’t have a site of her own.

six: root:1
flavours: cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc
root:1 is a lovely example of straight on the bottle printing. these bottles possess a classy combination of serif typeface with simple imagery, a design that translates well to their website.

five: lo tengo
flavours: torrontés and malbec
these aren’t labels you can appreciate until you have the bottles in front of you. they’re holographic, and, depending on whether you’re sipping a white or a red, show either a couple’s feet dancing or a classic dip kiss. they’re a product of bodega norton, but you’ll have a hard time finding anything to do with lo tengo on the site.

four: 7 deadly zins and 7 heavenly chards
flavours: zinfandel and chardonnay
two bottles from lodi vineyards take fourth in the battle for good labelling. each has a clever name, made even more clever by its counterpart. better yet, both have even managed to inspire artist michael godard.

three: mia’s playground
flavour: cabernet sauvignon, merlot and zinfandel
this wine is all about threes, so i couldn’t help but to make it third on the list. the label contains the perfect combination of quirky text and imagery, topped off with a barrel of [three] monkeys. all made possible by three loose screws.

two: (oops)
flavour: carmenere merlot, cabernet franc, carmenere rose, carmenere, sauvignon blanc and cabernet sauvignon
oops wines come in a variety of distinctly coloured flavours, such as “spicy splendor” and “gentle giant”. the labels are heavy with newspaperlike text, but hardly difficult to look at, especially with the prominent (oops) logo providing an anchor. the website is consistent with the label design, and the brand even manages their own blog.

one: bonny doon framboise
flavour: framboise [dessert]
bonny doon vineyards have a history of incredible wine label design, which is largely why their framboise tops my chart. the bottle’s slender shape is perfectly accented with the encircling lace. it’s the perfect combination of thoroughly elegant yet slightly suggestive - everything a wine should be.