It’s hard to believe that we have judged the WineMaker Label Contest 13 times now. And though many years have passed since the first label appeared in the mailbox in 2000, we still get excited to see the new designs each fall. With so many years behind us we can look back now and see how trends and tastes have changed. In all, however, the artwork and concepts have all remained decidely original. It’s not often that we thank people for making our job difficult, but when it comes to judging the label contest we appreciate the challenge you artists provide for us each year, as well as all of the hard work and imagination that goes into your designs. This year we picked a gritty guns and Grigio theme as our grand prize winner, a design with a vintage vibe for gold, fruit bombs for silver and a blocky Barbera for bronze. Thank you to everyone who entered. Keep up the great work and hopefully we’ll see more of your imaginative entries next year. Also, thank you to all of our generous sponsors for providing so many great prizes.

As winemakers, we do appreciate the art that goes into making what is inside a bottle of wine. But once a year, we like to take the opportunity to celebrate the art that goes on the outside of a bottle with our annual wine label contest. Choosing the winners for this contest are never easy decisions, however, and this year was no exception. This year, we went for camradarie with a design from a group of winemakers in California’s Castro Valley, felt the feline love with a pair of Italian kitties, got nostalgic for 70s AM radio with a Jeremiah-like bullfrog and got a hankering to use power equipment to harvest cherries. Thank you to everyone who sent in entries — it is always amazing to see all of the creative entries that come in from all over the world, not to mention fun to read about the stories that inspire the designs. Thanks also goes out to all of our generous sponsors for providing such great prizes. And to the winners, congratulations!

Wine is a work of art. And all home winemakers want to present their work in the best possible manner. (It should be poured into a suitable wine glass, for starters.) In addition, many home winemakers want to present their works of art in the best possible manner visually as well. And sometimes, a bare bottle with a tag saying only “Cab Sauv #3, 2008,” or something similar, doesn’t do justice to the amount of creativity poured into the liquid gold.

For some lucky winemakers, their talent for liquid artistry is matched by their eye for visual art — and these winemakers take their pencils, paintbrushes or computers and create labels for their wines. Perhaps inspired by a few glasses of wine, these labels are sometimes artsy, sometimes cute, or sometimes funny.

Every year at WineMaker we — definitely aided by a few glasses of wine — examine and compare all the entries in our label contest. This year, we are pleased to present the winners of our 2010 label contest. So grab a glass, enjoy these labels and perhaps get inspired to spruce up Cab #3.

When the economy isn’t cooperating like we would like, it’s always a good idea to start buying generic. But that doesn’t mean any of us need to give up on every kind of label. In fact, by the looks of the winners of this year’s annual label competition, home winemaking never looked so good!

This year, just as in those past, we received many amazing home wine label designs, which always provides a challenge for us to narrow it down to a handful of winners. Our expert panel of judges, after much deliberation, finally agreed on a sky filled with parachuting weiner dogs, a “hare”-itage Bourdeaux blend with bouncing bunnies, something a little classic and simple, and an out-and-out superhero.

Thank you everyone who entered for sharing your imaginative designs with us — it’s always a lot of fun to see everyone’s entries. And many thanks to our sponsors for donating all the great winning prizes.

Long after the last drop of wine is emptied from a bottle, we can still enjoy the memories of that vintage — just by looking at the label. This year we received many entries to our annual label contest, and based on what we saw there are a lot of great (tasting) memories out there. Have a glass of wine and take a look at this year’s winning entries. Congratulations to all the winners, thank you to the prize donors and everyone who entered — you made judging a tough job!