Hudson Valley winery tries personalized labels

MILLBROOK - In the world of rare label wines, it’s hard to beat the Ginsberg Development Cos. chardonnay from last year. Ditto for the 2005 Natalie and Bill cabernet franc, or the Residence Inn of Poughkeepsie pinot noir. The labels on these bottles are different, but the wine inside comes from the same place: Millbook Vineyards. Operators of this winery perched on a loamy slope in the Hudson Valley are pitching customized labels - we make the wine, you make the label - as a way to boost business. For the second autumn in a row, a time when the last few grapes hang low on the vine and chardonnay is already fermenting in oak barrels, the winery is sending letters to businesses promoting a unique holiday gift to pass out to customers. “We’ve approached businesses that never would have bought our wines to begin with,” said general manager David Bova. Millbrook is making its push at a time when the once-haughty American image of wine has loosened up amid the popularity of under-$10 bottles and wine in boxes. Labels with corporate logos barely raise eyebrows in a time when stores sell bottles marked “Old Fart.” It also helps that upstate New York wine, once dismissed as plonk, is held in higher esteem and as domestic winemaking regions besides Napa - like the Finger Lakes and Washington State - are getting recognition. Millbrook, in fact, was crucial to the Hudson Valley’s ascent. Businessman John Dyson opened it 20 years ago as a pioneering producer of quality wines in the Hudson Valley. Millbrook now plants about 30 acres of grapes, about half chardonnay, on an old dairy farm north of New York City. It sells about 10,000 cases a year, a fair number of sales to wine tourists who visit the gigantic dairy barn-turned-winery for tours and tastings. Millbrook has been doing personalized labels for a while, usually upon request for events like weddings and birthdays (“Happy 80th Birthday, Ole Firefighter”). Last year they stepped up marketing by offering 30 local businesses customized labels. As a sweetener, Millbrook included a bottle in its mailings. Response was strong enough to try it again this year, with a starting price at $18 over the cost of a single case, which can range from $162 to $250. Customers like the quirky giveaways. Residence Inn general manager Jerry Culkin said he goes through two cases every six weeks. Ginsberg Development Cos., a Westchester County residential builder, made a splash with employees by handing out a mix of reds and whites at the company’s 40th anniversary party last year. “We wanted to do something special for our 40th anniversary,” said Rachel Ginsberg. “Just giving a pen ... or a coffee mug, it didn’t seem as special.” Of the thousands of wineries in the United States, probably a couple of dozen offer customized labels to retail customers, said Bill Nelson, president of Wine America, a trade group. The biggest might be California’s Windsor Vineyards, which has been in the personalized label business since the `60s. Labeled bottles account for about 85 percent of the winery’s business, said sales director Tom Simoneau. Customers send in corporate logos, photos of kittens, and once a photo of the late rock promoter Bill Graham, in drag, for his 50th birthday, Simoneau said. Windsor’s Web site even lets visitors create labels online. Contemporary graphics software and printers make it easier - in fact Millbrook’s Stacy Hudson has created labels incorporating everything from Erte-inspired prints to a picture of a couple posing behind a freshly killed zebra. “Until recently, printing two dozen labels would be fairly expensive,” Nelson said. “I mean you can’t quite put someone’s name on with a stamp, or by hand.” Millbrook bottles “premium” wines that typically retail around $15 to $22 per bottle, but they have no fears of diluting the brand with labels featuring newlyweds or construction company logos. Every custom label notes that the wine is produced and bottled by Millbrook Winery. As Hudson notes: “It’s not like people are going to say ‘What a great wine. Who made it?’” On the Net: Millbrook Vineyards & Winery: www.millbrookwine.com/index.html WineAmerica: www.americanwineries.org/home.htm