Maison Ilan - Le Chambertin 2010

This is something new and different and totally exciting for me to share with you all.

Behold my very first wine label design.

From my embarrassingly limited understanding of the world of wine, this label will grace bottles of Maison Ilan's newest vintage of Le Chambertin... which is a Grand Cru from one of the oldest vineyards in one of the oldest wine regions in the world. Burgundy ... which is a Big. Deal.

Not to bad for my first label eh? Everyone who has asked me about this project has asked "oh is it a west coast producer?" and I've relished getting to haughtily inform them that my label is for a French wine.

Really, becoming a wine snob is not hard to do.

The project began with this loose watercolor...

and through the vision of Ray Walker, the man behind the wine, it evolved and became a refined portrait of the vineyard... Next we carefully chose fonts - which I then recreated by hand - confirming yet again that I do not have attention deficit disorder.

Yes, this took a while, to put it mildly. But I couldn't be prouder of how it turned out, or more relieved to know if this whole illustration thing falls through I may have a future as calligrapher.

The finishing flourish was the vine border, which you will notice combines both grapes and roses. This particular vineyard has rose bushes near the rows of vines...

I could go on and on about this and tell you the significance of every line of text, but I'll stop. I may be a wine snob now, but I know when to stop flexing my new found knowledge and get back to what you really want...

So, I'll be back soon with girls and dresses!