Don’t miss our trip to New Zealand in 2026! Register and Join Us

article

2012 WineMaker Wine Label Contest Winners

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. Also, thank you to all of our generous sponsors for providing so many great prizes.

GRAND
Greg and Jody Lumsden
Glen Carbon, Illinois

Greg and Judy came up with this idea, surprisingly, as Greg’s birthday theme (for the impending apocalypse). “Since my birthday is on December 21, 2012 — the supposed end of the world — I said that I would want my gold, guns and homemade wine. It just so happened that I was working on a Pinot Grigio at the time so it kinda stuck.”

GOLD

Michael DiFrisco
Madison, Wisconsin

“In my mind there’s nothing quite as elegant and esthetic as a 1950s-era tailfin,” says Michael. “When I came across these classic illustrations of vintage tailfins, I just knew they had to be incorporated into a wine label.”

SILVER

Rebecca Reeb
Escondido, California

After a “surface-of-the-sun” hot summer that scorched her vineyard, Rebecca imagined with her original artwork that relief planes would buzz her winery and dump tons of healthy Zinfandel grapes.

BRONZE
Louis Matrulli
Utica, New York

Larry Forte designed this playful label for Louis with contrasting typefaces and a hand-drawn glass of wine for Louis’ Mohawk Valley, New York winery.

HONORABLE MENTION

Gail Sacharczuk
Holland, Pennsylvania

Alfredo Zorzi
Spring, Texas

David Noone
Delray Beach, Florida

Cindy and Jack Sproehnle
Loveland, Ohio

Jeffrey Lengle
West Lawn, Pennsylvania

JJ Hutzenbiler
Billings, Montana

Justin and Jodi Navaretta
Houston, Texas

Michael and Tish Bachleda
Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania

Mike Rozmarin
Redwood City, California

John Cernac
Pueblo, Colorado

Kathy Maieli
Wilder, Vermont

Ron Phillips
Northport, New York

Ben Brandt
Crystal, Minnesota

Patricia and James McQuade
Branchville, New Jersey

Susan Weaver
Windsor, Ontario

Terence Cadigan
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

You might also like…

article

2026 Label Contest Winners

We share all of the winning labels from the 2026 WineMaker Label Contest, which include some repeat winners as well as new names from the hu

article

2025 Label Contest Winners

We share our favorite amateur wine labels entered into WineMaker’s 2025 Label Contest — from a faceless woman and a woman’s face seemi

article

2024 WineMaker Label Contest Winners

We share our favorite labels from the hundreds of entries submitted in the annual WineMaker Label Contest.

story behind the label for chateau hetsakais article

Story Behind The Label

We saw a lot of cool looking amateur wine labels in our 2023 label contest but nothing quite as unique as these. Check out these labels from