When gifting a bottle of your homemade wine, nothing shows the recipient how much care went into the contents inside the bottle than the appearance on the outside. For that reason, we have put a value on the design of your homemade labels for the past 22 years with our annual Amateur Label Contest. Each year, the staff at WineMaker gather and debate the merits of whimsical vs. serious labels, colors schemes, fonts, imagery, the weight original artwork should hold, and anything else that a label brings to mind. This year’s contest was full of debate, with top honors going to blueberry mosaic of a loved pet narrowly beating out other crowd favorites. Following are our favorite labels from the hundreds submitted.
Lastly, a huge thank you to our sponsors who support this annual contest by donating fantastic home winemaking prizes!
GRAND
Scottsdale, Arizona
GOLD
Loveland, Ohio
SILVER
Bellingham, Washington
BRONZE
Romania
READER’S CHOICE
San Diego, California
HONERABLE MENTION
Lafayette, California
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Mexico City, Mexico
Corrientes, Argentina
Woodland Hills, California
Orlando, Florida
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Oak Harbor, Washington
East Wenatchee, Washington
Los Olivos, California
Merrick Mouton
Lafayette, Louisiana
Ridgeway, Virginia
Ranchita, California
San Rafael, California
Woodstock, Georgia
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Shorewood, Illinois
Coventry, Connecticut
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Iran
DePere, Wisconsin
Sonoma, California
Grafton Township, Ohio
Sonoma, California
Bakersfield, California
My hobby may be winemaking, but by day I am a commercial artist. I use house paint on a daily basis at my job, so when I have the opportunity to create artwork at home I don’t spend that obscene amount of money at art supply stores — I do all of my shopping at the local hardware store. To combine my two interests, I also design the wine labels for our…
