The International Review of Wine Packaging and Aesthetics, Vol. 5

Two Brothers Big Tattoo Red
Cabernet Sauvignon. 2003. ($10 in Jersey City)

[Note: This is the fifth installment in a regular Murketing feature. For previous installments and an explanation, go here.]

Like the bull wine, this has a dangler (or “dangly,” if you prefer). In this case the dangled item is a pink ribbon, which we will address in a moment.

First the label. Here the style, as echoed in the name, is tattoo-ish. It is a big bold fleur de lys, rendered in a tattoo style. Eye-catching! As is often the case these days, the back label includes a lengthy text that tells us all about the story behind the wine: The two brothers are a wine guy and a tattoo artist. They created this wine “in honor of” their mother, who died of cancer. Thus the pink ribbon. Fifty cents of every bottle sold goes to a cancer-related charities.

We like the illustration quite a bit, and the typography. Also the shape of the label. On the other hand, E suggests the “2 Brothers” at the top of the front label might have looked better, typographically, with the word “Two,” upper-lower. The type face is not so strong in its current all-upper usage.

The back label is tapered, just like the front one, and we like this consistency. The cork – the squishy plastic-y kind — continues the design, with the name, the tattoo styling, and the fleur de lys. We always like it when the cork carries on the bottle design (or at least when it’s well executed). E calls the ribbon “a nice element. … It kind of makes the bottle more exciting.” I tend to agree with this (it is, after all, the thing that made us buy the bottle in the first place).

Last time we saw a bottle of this wine in a shop, it did not have the ribbon. Oh well.

REGARDING THE ACTUAL WINE: Fine.