Artist Series Label Quest

Last year, after our kitchen remodel, I bought a print of wine bottle labels to hang on the wall. (as you might have guessed, the Lush eat-in kitchen motif is wine-inspired.) Meanwhile, we had kept a few bottles of wine we had drank that either was fantastic/special occasion quality, or had art as labels. Now, I don’t mean pretty labels. I mean actual art printed on the label.

Now, a year plus later, we have quite a few, although many of them are the Imagery Wines shared with us by Mr. and Mrs. Luce. The Imagery labels are original works of commissioned art. Another notable artist series is the Kenwood Artist Series, which are reprints of art, notably the Naked Lady. (interesting story) While the Kenwood and Imagery are good bottles of wine with art on it, the J. Garcia wine is… well, a bottle of wine with art on it. But, Mr. Lush was a DeadHead in his former long haired hippy life, so I indulge him with an occasional Jam Band concert, purchase him a J. Garcia tie now and then, and even let Jerry into our wine collection for a brief, brief moment.

Yes, yes, back to the point. I want to make my own piece of art from label-art, so we are on a quest to try more artist series labels. Thus, a quest to try more wine. It’s a rough job, but someone’s gotta do it, we say.

Recently we tried Cycles Gladiator 2006 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon. Its like $9 at a grocery store, although only carried in more affluent areas. Well, typically, I don’t like $9 cabs but its an artist series label…so we tried it. And…we were pleasantly surprised. It didn’t even need to be decanted that long, maybe 30 minutes and it was very drinkable. Its got a couple layers, nothing fantastic, an average finish. But, once again, lets review the price point- a DECENT BOTTLE OF CABERNET for NINE DOLLARS??? I really expected to end up pouring it down the drain, like the J. Garcia wine, but nope, we even picked up another bottle.

Leave it to the Lush’s to find another reason to try many, many bottles of wine. How fun!! Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Luce just got back from California, where I added to their already insanely packed agenda the task of finding us some new artist series wines. Lets hope they were successful!