The art of the back-label tasting note
A few years ago, while working on the launch of a French wine brand, I found myself in a surprisingly heated debate with the producer about a single food match on the back label. I wanted the suggestion to reference a local French dish, but it also needed to feel familiar enough for UK shoppers and flexible enough to work in other markets.
The wine was a medium-bodied red, so I chose cassoulet. The tasting note read: ‘Enjoy with roasted meat, cassoulet or dark chocolate.’ I deliberately kept it simple: three options, one of which was a local dish that linked the wine back to its origin, as the brief required.
When the producer reviewed the copy, they pushed back immediately. Cassoulet, they said, was a fairly basic dish; they would rather use something more refined, such as ‘foie gras poêlé aux morilles’. My response was simple: the average UK wine drinker buying a bottle under £10 would be unlikely to know what that was.
After some back and forth, we agreed to keep the original suggestion: cassoulet. The artwork was finalised, the wine launched, and a major UK retailer listed three SKUs from the range. It stayed on shelf for 24 months before eventually being delisted.
At the time, I was pleased with myself for arguing against ‘foie gras poêlé aux morilles’ on the back label. In hindsight, I am less sure. To this day, I have never had cassoulet in the UK, and I doubt many UK wine drinkers in the sub-£10 category have either.
So what did I take from the experience? Both the producer and I had focused too much on our own convictions and on staying close to the brief. We were both wrong. We had chosen food matches that were too far removed from the real world to resonate with the consumers the wine was aimed at. One of the best food matches I have seen on a back label read: ‘bloody good with pizza’ — simple, direct and relevant.
Wine brand owners and marketers often see this tiny piece of copy as an opportunity to tell their brand story and wax lyrical about the organoleptic qualities of their product.
It was a useful reminder that a tasting note is not written for the producer, the copywriter or the trade buyer. It is written for the person standing in front of the shelf, deciding what to put in their basket.
Experience has taught me that a back-label tasting note should have one goal: to help an undecided shopper make up their mind. What does this taste like, and what can I have it with? Keep it simple, keep it direct and, above all, keep it relevant.