Have you noticed how beautiful the front of some wine labels can be? Some are bright pink, others are white with bold lettering or have cool images of chickens, hens, dogs, lizards and other sorts of cool artwork. It seems, there is a good chance, you’re actually looking at the back of the wine bottle!
Huh? Yeah, the front of the label must have a certain set of criteria: brand name, type of wine, alcohol by volume, name/address of bottler and a few other facts and figures. When you look at one of those artsy bottles and you see some of this information missing you may be looking at the back of the bottle, not the front.
The reason, it’s hard to tell which is the front and which is the back on a round bottle. Therefore, wine bottlers have found they can stuff all the “boring” information about the wine on what most people consider the “back” of the bottle and a cool label on the front. Granted, the front is really the back, a store will “face” the bottle so the cool images is in the front, thus changing what most regulations would consider the front.
The wine bottlers did as required, they put all the important lawful information on a label, it’s just up to the reader to decide what is the front and what is the back. Market research will easily show human tendencies and just like reading a book we “assume” the book opens a certain way and just as we make an assumption about what part of a label is meant to be seen first.
Interesting point of view. Next time you’re in the store looking at pretty wine labels, and perhaps selecting based on the label, consider the fact that you may actually be looking at the back of the bottle!
source: Wine For Dummies.
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