Last month, we asked the Sisterhood the eternal question: is bigger better? We were speaking, of course, about our PromisQous wine label. 

PromisQous was one of the Wine Sisterhood's two inagural wines, launched in June of 2008.  (The other was Middle Sister). The style we selected for the wine was a blend--a blend of mutually attractive grape varieties--hence the name.

OK, sometimes we have too much fun around the clubhouse. At any rate, after some time in the market and some good success, we were hearing a few comments from our trade partners that perhaps the name should be bigger.

If you ever wandered into the wine section of your favorite retailer and have been confronted with the "wall of wine" you'll understand the importance of having a label "pop" out 'acha. A wine label is your tiny little billboard on the shelf often surrounded by hundreds of other tiny little billboards saying "pick me, pick me".

And we can all agree that it's often the label that is the deciding purchase factor. So, wines have a little space to make a lot of impact--really at the point of purchase, just a couple of seconds. So your label must work as hard as it can. This is especially holds true in the supermarket setting, where unlike your local wine shop, there likely won't be an expert there to offer guidance.

For our May survey, we showed the sisters four versions of the PromisQous label--the original, and three additional versions which enlarged the name incrementally--all the way up to 120% of the original font size.

According to our survey results, the winner was the label with the largest name. In this version, the name PromisQous appeared 120% of the original size. (The version is shown upper left). Runner-up was the original label (shown lower right). Votes in favor of the original praised it as elegant and refined. Those who favored the larger version liked its impact and read-ability and believed the larger size would help to cut through wine wall clutter.

In one of our favorite quotes of the survey:

"Size DOES matter especially when speaking of pro*mis*Q*ous. If ya got it flaunt it!"

Are there any other ways you think wine labels could work harder to help in the buying decision? More technical info? Less technical info? More pairing suggestions? Quick recipes? Do you read back labels? Add your comments and us know.

Thanks to all who took the May Survey and sat in on our design meeting. And be sure to take our June survey and weigh in on if you think the world is ready for a Middle Sister Moscato.