The paper's choice for design a wine label starts from the idea that your brand or company wants to express to the consumer. We want to reveal some types of cards, to allow you to make a conscious, qualitative and sustainable choice. Let's see them together:
Natural, Laid and Embossed Papers
First choice papers express quality and luxury and therefore remain perfect for telling your bottle of wine; generally characterized by an excellent porosity and a scratchy sensation to the touch.
The colours on these papers are absorbed and appear slightly duller when compared to printing standards on coated or metallized papers. Pantone Uncoated should be referred to when choosing the colours printed on this type of paper.
As for the processes, such as foil, relief and screen printing, it is necessary to know that these papers are well suited to be worked; in particular, techniques such as embossing and debossing are recommended, especially for thicker papers. If you want to polish some elements to highlight them, it is advisable to do it in screen printing, as other flat offset and flexo coatings tend to be absorbed too much.
Coated papers
This type of paper was made mainly to intensify the colours as much as possible, especially when the theme of the wine label is a four-colour image. Competitive price.
For colours, please refer to the Pantone Coated Colorbook.
They are perfect for retro wine labels, as their smooth planar surface allows excellent overprinting of data such as batch, both for inkjet and thermal transfer printing.
All the finishing processes mentioned above can be done. However, debossing and embossing are not recommended, as many papers are very thin.
Pearly Papers
An exciting alternative to enrich your product. Over the years, they have become an excellent choice for sparkling wines, as their "glittery" and brilliant effect goes very well with the enthusiasm of the wine inside the bottle.
They can be both glossy and matte. Therefore the choice of colours can be made on both Pantone Coated (for glossy) and Uncoated (for a matte) Color books.
Pearly papers retain their lustre and glitter effect if not covered by too much ink. Therefore, leaving out too dark backgrounds is advisable, thus obscuring the desired pearly effect. This type of paper can also be worked with hot foil and silk-screen printing or matte varnishes and spot gloss varnishes to highlight details.
Metallized papers
Characterized by a silvery or golden metallic effect, there are both glossy and opaque ones, and they are the best choice when it comes to wanting to embellish a label.
It is advisable to start with silver metallic paper; the colours printed above tend to metallize themselves. Therefore it will be possible to obtain gold, copper, platinum colour etc. Pantone colours are challenging to reproduce on these papers faithfully; my advice is to do a print test on metallic paper with various colours close to the one chosen so that you can visually observe how they behave on the metallic substrate.
Hot foil is not recommended for processing, as it can be simulated on the substrate, while highly opaque varnishes, glossy screen printing and spot varnishes are the best choices.
Papers with anti-pulping treatment
The previous papers for wine labels also exist in their “Anti-pulp” form. With this type of treatment, we refer to those papers to which added additives that allow more excellent resistance to humidity and the refrigerator.
Barrier Papers
All the previous papers also exist in their "Barrier" form, treated with a plastic barrier applied to the surface (basically 20 microns of polythene), which guarantees superior rigidity and resistance to the fridge and bucket.
The primary choice is if your product is sparkling wine or rosé and must end up in a bucket without the label coming off after a few minutes.
Sustainable Papers and Ecological Papers
In recent years, the issue of sustainability of wine labels have moved several paper mills to produce new ecological materials. There are, in fact, wine label papers that support the non-felling of trees. Paper is made with cellulose fibres from sugar cane and flax, hemp and cotton fibres. Materials that do not use cellulose have also been studied, such as stone paper, produced from waste dust from marble and stone processing.
Adhesives, Permanent and Removable
Permanent adhesives are generally chosen because they guarantee the perfect adhesion of the wine label to the glass of the bottle.
Sometimes it can be useful, however, to have labels that are removable, perhaps to recover the glass or for sustainability reasons. There are various types, one of the most used is an adhesive that once immersed in hot water tends to dissolve to allow you to easily remove the label.
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