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Earliest 'labels' -

It was the ancient Egyptians who first started documenting details of their wines. This was achieved not with labeling but by inscription. Terracotta wine jars often featured hieroglyphics identifying the growing region, winegrower or vineyard, and winemaker.

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More detailed descriptions -

Besides wines, these inscriptions identified other commodities, things such as ale or fat. Longer texts also provided the year, the source of the commodity, and the occasion for which it was prepared. This jar fragment dates back to the reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, circa 1390-1353 BCE.

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Neck and neck -

The Romans, themselves partial to a jug or two of wine, chose to etch details closer to the neck of the jug. This photograph shows an illustration of two wine jugs excavated at Pompeii in the 1800s.

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Etching onto papyrus -

The Egyptians advanced their method of identifying wines by etching information onto pieces of papyrus, thus creating the earliest examples of the wine labels we're familiar with today.

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Printing wine labels -

The early Middle Ages saw attempts at producing wine bottle labels using a stone and ink roller.

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Invention of the printing press -

The invention of the printing press in 1436 by Johannes Gutenberg revolutionized the production of text for books.

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First paper wine bottle label appears -

But it wasn't until the arrival of the lithographic printing process that the first paper wine labels appeared, in Germany, in the 1780s.

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Mass market -

The lithographic printing process allowed for wine makers to mass produce small labels. And like the etchings made in antiquity, these contained all of the information required to identify the wine by type, maker, and region.

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Simple design -

Initially, wine labels remained fairly conservative in their design. This simple Château Mouton Rothschild J. Calvet & Cie Bordeaux label dates back to 1900.

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More elaborate designs -

But as the printing process became more advanced, so too did the wine labels. Indeed, many wineries began to place great importance on the label design.

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Self-promotion opportunities -

Independent wineries quickly identified the marketing potential in producing their own labels. This image shows a label created by a Paris restaurant called Chez René, produced to advertise the eatery's own in-house wine.

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Rare labels -

One of the oldest wine-growing regions in the world is Georgia. The labels created to identify and publicize wine made in this part of the world number some of the rarest ever designed. The label pictured is on display in the Numisi Cellar Museum in Velistsikhe.

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Adding the label to the bottle -

While methods to print labels had advanced further by the early 20th century, the task of adding labels to bottle was still very much a manual process. Here we see employees of a French winery in the 1920s laboriously at work in the cellar.

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Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902–1988) -

Some of the most sought-after labels by collectors are those produced for Château Mouton Rothschild. This is because wine-grower Baron Philippe de Rothschild came up with the idea of having each year's Château Mouton Rothschild label designed by a famous artist of the day.

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Jean Carlu (1900–1997) -

French graphic designer Jean Carlu provided Château Mouton Rothschild with its inaugural label design in 1924, the first time a commercial artist designed a wine label.

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Artistic wine -

Since then, numerous artists have been commissioned to design a Château Mouton Rothschild label, among them Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall and, pictured, David Hockney, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.

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Royal label -

In 2004, Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III), designed a label. The popularity of the label images resulted in auction prices for older and more collectible years reaching eye-watering figures.

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An exceptional wine, an exceptional year -

But Château Mouton Rothschild is not alone in commanding high prices at auction. This rare bottle of French 1945 vintage Romanee-Conti Burgundy wine, for example, is one of only 600 bottles ever produced. The label serves to identify the wine and, critically, the year. But what other information typically appears on a wine bottle label?

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Reading the label -

Mandatory wine label information includes the name and address of the supplier or the bottler of the wine, the country or countries of origin, the quantity of the product, and the alcoholic strength measured by volume as long as the wine is over 1.2%.

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Health warnings -

Increasingly, however, additional health advice is appearing on wine labels, imparting information such as the number of units of alcohol per day recommended for men and women, and calorie content per glass.

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When not to drink alcohol -

This label on a French wine bottle shows an icon picturing a forbidden sign on a pregnant woman drinking. In many countries wine and alcohol sectors are under pressure from public health authorities to better warn about the dangers of alcohol for the at-risk populations, in particular pregnant women.

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Message on a bottle -

And in a world increasingly preoccupied with its own existence, a good few wine-growers are increasingly promoting a "greener planet" by labeling their products with messages urging cleaner vineyards, more "green" wines, and lighter bottles. In fact, many in the global wine and spirits business believe their only chance of long-term survival lies with sustainable development.

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Promoting diversity -

And the message can be a social one, too. These two wine bottles spotted in Germany are labeled "Pink Tractor" and "Coming Out." Both draw attention to sexual diversity in viticulture.

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Seal of approval -

Many wine bottles include a special seal featuring a QR code that can be read by a smart device to check the authenticity of the product. The feature is among several technologies that vintners are embracing to foil fraudsters and reassure consumers that they are buying the real thing.

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The art of the wine label -

Today, the artistic legacy of the wine label is upheld by contemporary artists around the world. In the United States, for instance, the work of both Erin McGee Ferrell and Allen Bunker are represented on American red wine bottles.

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Creative partnership -

And the creative partnership between wine producers and artists is beneficial to both. This label declares: "YOU CAN'T BUY HAPPINESS. BUT YOU CAN DRINK my PINOT BLANC!"

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Business partnership -

In the United Kingdom, English Heritage Stonehenge-branded mead wine capitalizes on the history of Great Britain by promoting one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the world while advertising honey wine, an alcoholic beverage commonly known as mead whose origins are rooted in the Middle Ages.

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The politics of wine -

And wine labels have on occasion been politicized. This photograph taken in 2007 shows the label of a bottle of wine referring to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. The wine is labeled "Howard's End" and displays a cartoon of the beleaguered prime minister hurtling towards a rubbish bin, which already contains a copy of his radical labor law reforms. At the time, Howard's administration was attempting to push through deeply unpopular industrial relations and tax reforms.

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In bad taste -

But when is a wine label one too far? Take a look at this photograph. These bottles of wine with labels depicting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler were spotted on a shelf in the cellar of Lunardelli Wine in Collaredo di Prato near Udine, Italy, in September 2003. The German government asked the Italian government to investigate whether the labels on Lunardelli's wine, which also depicted many other infamous Nazis, contravened a European Union resolution on combating the spread of racist images and literature. The wine's sale was made illegal in Germany, where products bearing images or slogans from the Nazi era are outlawed.

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The label as propaganda -

Similarly, a range of red wine bottles labeled Una Grande Libre, the name of which is derived from a motto from Francoist Spain—"One Great and Free"—was seen recently in a bar in the south district of Usera, Madrid. General Francisco Franco, leader of the Nationalist forces that overthrew the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War, is still revered today by far-right political supporters.

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A souvenir drink -

If next time you're taken with the design of the label decorating your restaurant wine, inquire as to whether the sommelier can remove it as a souvenir of your meal. Many upscale eateries offer this additional customer service. 

Sources: (Premier Labels) (CS Labels) (National Archives of Australia)

See also: What happens to your body when you drink wine every night?

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