The Wine Label Collecting Hobby
July 31, 2008
Most vineyards use their own personalized wine bottle labels, but they have been updating their labels and making them easier to read for the consumer. All vineyards and sometimes all vintages have a unique label. As these labels are updated, the old labels become valued by collectors for their age and the quality of the vintage.
When establishing any type of label collection it may become necessary to preserve the container especially bottles such as wine bottles. The various methods used to remove labels can destroy or otherwise damage a label as it’s being lifted from the curved surface of a wine bottle.
Just as with all collectors items it is important that it maintain its condition in order to be of any value. If you do have to remove a label it is a good idea to gentle do so with a label removing procedure. Most people use heat in order to loosen the glue. This must be done carefully because heat damage can reduce the value of the label if you are collecting for value of the vineyard.
Some labels are truly works of art and collected because of this. Some vineyards put works of famous people on the labels. Some even commission work for the label, and these are thought to be works of art and considered valuable enough to collect simply for the label artwork.
Highly valued in the collector’s world, these completely commissioned labels make each wine bottle a work of art that is 100% personalized. When you are trying to start your own collection of wine labels, there are some things that you’ll need to think about.
You will wish to collect older labels, because these will either be printed one at a time, particularly before there was any mass production of labels and they will have handmade works of art; or else they will simply be from fine or expensive vintages which give them inherent value.
A little research into collecting personalized wine bottles is a good idea. Check out the types of vintages that are true investments. It is best to collect highly desirable labels. However, you may just want to have fun with it. Collecting and personalizing wine bottles is interesting and a great conversation starter but It doesn’t actually have a large following.
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