Yesterday, a winery client called us about a huge wine order. The customer plans to use the wine at a fundraiser, then again at a milestone anniversary celebration a few months later.

They need a gorgeous label.

The wine sale is already secured. Our conversation was about creating packaging worthy of the occasions—and those receiving the bottles.

One customer. Two events. A huge wine sale!

Who in your community is planning something that could warrant that kind of wine purchase? Do they know you can help?

At Sara Nelson Design, we’re seeing a sharp increase in private label projects. Interesting orders are coming from businesses and organizations with something to celebrate, people to thank and a budget to do it well.

There’s an occasion behind the order

A company celebrating its 100th anniversary, purchased significant quantities of wine from its favorite winery to create commemorative “Founders’ Edition” sets.

We created six distinct but cohesive labels, each honoring one of the company’s founders, along with presentation boxes that bring the wines together as gifts for anniversary party guests.

Guests will receive something made specifically for the celebration, telling a story that connects them to the company’s history along with a personal note of appreciation.

Another private label project will serve as a thank-you to people instrumental in developing a premier golf course. We’ve also worked on custom labels for multiple universities and for other nonprofit fundraising auctions.

The most elaborate project we’ve been involved with featured handmade terracotta wine bottles with leather neck tags, presented to celebrity guests at an exclusive event at a private villa in Italy.

Where is your opportunity? You might want to have a conversation with the business owner who’s been in your wine club for a few years to see what occasions might be on the horizon.

Give them a reason to order

Your customers may love your wine and still have no idea you can create something custom for them. You may need to help them make the connection. Is a longtime business approaching a milestone anniversary? Is a university (or foundation) recognizing major donors? Is a nonprofit gearing up for a fundraiser?

Show them what’s possible: a commemorative bottle for every guest, a boxed collection for major contributors, a custom magnum for an auction or a thank-you gift for the people who brought a major project to completion. We can personalize every bottle if that would add value.

Bring a compelling examples. A finished bottle or presentation box gives someone something to pick up, examine and imagine giving.

Start with those who know your wine: club members who own businesses, corporate customers and organizations that have hosted events at your winery. Find out what they have coming up—and who is making the purchasing decisions.

Make the presentation worth the occasion

A company celebrating 100 years has a century of work, relationships and pride behind it. The gift should reflect that.

Thoughtful design connects the wine to the people and purpose behind the purchase. The story on the label, the feel of the paper, the printing details and the presentation all contribute to its value.

Done well, the bottle can live in one's cellar or display for years after the celebration—serving as a lovely reminder of the occasion.

The right solution might be a beautifully designed label. It might be a six-bottle collection in a custom box. Bring us into the conversation early so you can offer choices that suit the customer’s budget and deadline. Labels can be turned around fairly quickly. Boxes take longer.

Who should you call?

Take a look at your customer list. Who has something to celebrate, people to thank or a cause to support?

Reach out with an idea that fits their occasion. Show them what you can create together and make it easy to get started.

They already know they like your wine. Give them a reason to order it by the case—or by the pallet!

Then give us a call. We’d love to work with you and your customer create a package worthy of the occasion. 509-545-4584

Trends don’t happen in a vacuum…

They reflect what’s happening with producers, consumers and the culture. In 2026, budgets are tighter. People are drinking differently. They’re looking for connection. And on the shelf, some of the most interesting brands are getting a little quirky.

Here’s what we’re seeing at Sara Nelson Design.

How Can I Cut Costs on my Packaging?

This is the question we hear most often.

Money is tight. And wine still needs to be moved out of the tank or barrel, bottled, labeled and sold. But our clients are looking for help in bringing production costs down.

Sometimes that means doing without an embellishment. Sometimes it means changing vendors or reconsidering material choices.

These days it often means asking AI to generate concepts rather than hiring a designer or forgoing foundational work when creating or refreshing a brand. Skipping those is not a great idea. There’s more to this than a generic pretty image.

We see many producers doing away with capsules altogether. This saves money and reduces waste, and the finished package can also look clean, fresh and contemporary. What began as a cost-saving decision can actually serve as an aesthetic one as well.

We are beginning to see producers switch to lighter-weight bottles. For decades, a nice heavy bottle was the first cue that you had an exceptional bottle of wine. As shipping costs have skyrocketed, reducing bottle weight has become both good business and one more way to keep wines competitively priced.

There’s nothing wrong with designing to a budget. Constraints can produce some very smart design. The danger is assuming that every dollar removed from the label is a dollar saved. Cheap production choices can become expensive if they make the wine easy to overlook or less compelling to buy.

At Sara Nelson Design, we’ve written more extensively about how to reduce wine label production costs without sacrificing the brand. You can find “Pro Tips for Keeping Wine Packaging Costs Down Without Compromising Quality” on our website.

Humans Long for Connection

For all of the technology making our lives faster, more convenient and seemingly more connected through social media, people are quite hungry for something decidedly low-tech: each other.

We’re seeing clients build wine brands around gathering, friendship, conversation and the simple pleasure of sitting around a table together, where deep personal bonds are formed.

Wine has always belonged in that world. But the emphasis is different now—far more intentional. Increasingly, connection is part of the brand itself.

That changes the design language. The most successful expressions feel warm, generous and human.

Drinking Less Doesn’t Mean Caring Less

Consumers are smart. They’re making thoughtful decisions about when and how much they drink. They’re generally consistent – conscientious about what they eat as well as drink.

Non-alcoholic wine has been a significant part of our workload this year, and that’s no accident. Moderation, wellness and changing attitudes toward alcohol are reshaping the category.

We’re seeing a significant rise in new non-alcoholic and alcohol-removed wine brands being developed for different audiences and reasons:

• Alcohol doesn’t align with the brand creator’s values or those of their audience.

• Consumers with high-performance lifestyles—including those drawn to exotic car culture—want all of the tradition and celebration without the risk.

• In industries such as law and finance, social drinking is an expected part of the culture, but discretion and clarity matter.

Wineries are selling non-alcohol (NA) wines alongside their traditional offerings because people want to stay longer, even after they’ve reached their personal consumption limit.

They Still Want the Feels

Consumers still want the beautiful bottle on the table. They want something that feels appropriate for dinner, a celebration or a Thursday night with friends. They want choice without compromise.

NA wine packaging needs to communicate everything other wine packaging communicates while playing by the rules of the FDA rather than the TTB. And those are very different rules.

The “smart consumer” trend isn’t specific to wine. At the same time as we’re developing NA wine brands, we’re creating organic wine brands and branding for Kipos, a company that sells biological agents as alternatives to harmful pesticides and herbicides. Across categories, people want products that protect the health of their families and pets.

Quirky Trumps Perfection

At the more accessible end of the wine shelf, we’re seeing labels become quirkier, higher contrast and more visibly hand-hewn.

Illustration. Unexpected typography. Strange characters. Bold color relationships. Art that looks like it was made by a person. We see this as a direct rejection of pixel-perfect, AI-generated design. 

There’s an immediacy to these labels that works particularly well for moderately priced wines. They aren’t trying to communicate old-world grandeur or luxury. They’re trying to catch your eye, make you curious and give you a reason to pick up the bottle and take it home for dinner.

After years of beautifully restrained labels, bold awkwardness feels surprisingly fresh. In a category where getting noticed is half the battle, being quirky may be a very practical strategy.

What’s Next?

The next wine packaging trend may not start with design at all. 

Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is changing the conversation around packaging. As producers are required to take more responsibility for what happens to packaging after it’s used, every component of the container becomes part of the equation: glass, paper, capsules, closures and even adhesives.

Wine packaging decisions are often made years before release. Many of our clients are making decisions today for wines that may not reach the market for five or even ten years. That puts the regulatory horizon squarely inside the wine production cycle.

This pressure is likely to reinforce several trends that we’re already seeing: fewer components, less material and more thoughtful production choices.

That’s where things get interesting for designers.

Reducing packaging doesn’t have to mean reducing the experience. A bottle without a capsule can feel intentional rather than unfinished. A label without foil or embossing can still be beautiful. Lightweight glass can still feel premium.

The definition of premium wine packaging is evolving

Historically, luxury was often communicated through weight and material excess—heavy bottles, die-cast medallions and wax dips. Increasingly, sophistication is being expressed through intentionality, restraint and material intelligence instead.

We believe constraints force us to prioritize. The wine labels of the next few years will likely be defined as much by the things we omit as by the things we add.

If you are working to think through the effect of brand and label trends on your position or product, Sara Nelson Design can help. Give us a call!

Sara Nelson’s background in color forecasting taught her to look beyond what’s becoming popular to understand why. She brings that perspective to wine label design, exploring how tighter budgets, changing drinking habits and a desire for connection are shaping the bottles on the shelf—and what winery owners can learn from those shifts.

Before you spend money on a new wine label, finish this sentence:

“This investment will be worth it if _______.”

The answer tells us more than showing us a bunch of labels you like.

Perhaps you’re asking $45 for a wine whose packaging suggests $20. Perhaps customers love one of your wines without recognizing the others on the shelf come from your winery too. Perhaps your distributor struggles to explain what makes your brand worth carrying.

Those are three different problems. They deserve three different approaches.

At Sara Nelson Design, clients often arrive asking for a label, a logo or a brochure. Our first job is to understand what they need it to accomplish.

Keep What’s Working

Badger Mountain Vineyard already had something valuable: a powerful signature color—cobalt blue.

We kept that asset, brought the mountain into the visual story and used printing technology to amplify the bottle’s vibrancy.

Badger Mountain later reported that the label refresh played a pivotal role in helping secure new distributors and additional opportunities.

A refresh should build on the recognition you’ve earned. Knowing what to keep is part of the work.

Your Money Goes Further When…

Who needs to notice your wine? What should they understand about it? What makes it worthy of the price?

The answers shape what we design. Production knowledge helps us make it happen.

A distinctive label still needs to fit your bottle, run smoothly on your bottling line, survive an ice bucket and make financial sense at your quantities. We consider those practical details during design, while there’s still time to solve problems before they become expensive surprises.

What Would Make Your Next Investment Worthwhile?

A stronger position at $45? A wine family customers recognize? A story your distributor can sell?

Let’s start there.

Call Sara Nelson Design at 509-545-4584—before you pay to print another label that keeps the same problem on the shelf.

No NA Wine in Your Lineup?

Who’s Getting the Next Pour?

You’ve worked hard to become someone’s favorite winery. Then they decide to drink less alcohol—and you hand the next sale to someone else.

They may still love your wine. They may still want a beautiful bottle on the dinner table, something worth pouring for friends and a glass that belongs in the toast. But tonight, they want less alcohol. Or none.

What do you have for them?

A thoughtfully developed low or non-alcoholic wine (“LoNo”) gives you an answer. And several good reasons to reconsider your lineup.

They’re switching. Can you keep up?

People don’t always spend an evening choosing between drinking and abstaining. Some move back and forth.

There’s a name for it: “zebra striping”—alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages throughout the evening.

A glass of your Chardonnay. A glass of NA sparkling. Perhaps a red with dinner.

If you offer both, your brand can have a place in more of those pours. If you offer only traditional wine, you leave the other choices to somebody else’s portfolio.

Water is a pretty low bar for hospitality

Four people walk into your tasting room. Three do tastings. The fourth gets a glass of water and waits.

You’ve created a lovely experience for three-fourths of them.

An appealing NA offering gives that fourth guest something to choose, taste and talk about. They get to participate instead of feeling like the proverbial fifth wheel.

That matters when the group decides where to go next weekend. The person skipping alcohol gets a vote, too.

It’s much like having a friend who is vegetarian or gluten-free. Considerate friends choose destinations where everyone can find something to enjoy.

“Would you like fries with that?”

Your customer is hosting dinner. Some guests drink. Some don’t. Some will do a little of both.

You can sell them the wines for their dinner party, with an NA bottle as a natural additional purchase. If they’re not buying it from you, they may shop elsewhere to find a suitable wine alternative.

The same opportunity can extend to weddings, restaurant pairings, corporate events and gifts. A good host wants everyone to feel considered. A desirable NA wine helps them do that without putting a juice box next to the stemware.

Nobody owes the table an explanation

“I’m not drinking tonight” can turn into a conversation someone never wanted to have.

A guest may want to skip alcohol and keep their reason private. They still want to raise a glass, enjoy dinner and be part of the evening without answering awkward questions.

Clear labeling and thoughtful presentation can do both jobs: make the contents easy to identify and give the person holding the glass something they’re delighted to drink.

But another SKU won’t rescue a weak idea

An NA wine needs to earn its place. Taste matters—a lot! So do production costs, pricing and whether your customers actually want what you’re offering.

A growing category can tempt a winery to rush straight to a label. That’s an expensive place to begin guessing.

Will your existing brand give the product credibility? Would a separate identity connect better with its intended audience? What makes it desirable enough to buy again?

Packaging can invite the first purchase. The product has to earn the second.

Your NA wine. Our design. Fewer headaches.

Your TTB-approved label doesn’t become an NA label because you added two letters.

NA wine labels fall under FDA labeling requirements rather than the TTB wine-labeling framework used for wines at 7% ABV and above. Product descriptions, ingredient declarations and nutrition labeling need their own attention, including any applicable exemptions.

And that’s only one piece of the puzzle.

You have a customer in mind, a price to support and a bottle that needs to look like it belongs at the table. Your producer has supplied information that needs translating into label copy. The printer needs usable artwork. That gorgeous paper may come with a minimum order that blows your budget. And all the required information must miraculously fit into four square inches.

This is where Sara Nelson Design comes in.

We design the label and help untangle the decisions around it: what deserves attention, where the required information belongs, which materials make sense and how to get the design into production. When the bottle, budget and printing process pull in different directions, we help find a workable path.

Bring us the product, the audience and all the loose ends. We’ll help you turn them into packaging you’re proud to put your name on—and your customers are pleased to put on the table.

See some of our work on NA wine brands.

Want a fresh take on your traditional wine labels? Explore our Wine Label Design portfolio.

Yes, You Can Totally Buy a Wine Just Because You Like the Label

From minimalist typography to playful illustrations, a wine label can offer clues about a bottle’s style, personality, and even the winemaker’s approach, but there’s more to consider before you buy.

Sara Nelson Design builds wine brands from the foundation up, aligning strategy, identity and packaging around the same message and the same business goals.

Badger Mountain Vineyard’s new label helped them secure new distributors.

Revelation by Goose Ridge grew 185% nationally.

These results move design firmly into the business conversation.

Preserving the Familiar

Badger Mountain Vineyard already had strong recognition in its iconic cobalt-colored bottles. Sara Nelson Design retained the familiar blue while bringing the mountain into the visual story. They also used modern printing technology to amplify the bottle’s vibrancy (and thus visibility) on the shelf.

We’ve already heard great things so far from customers and retail partners, and the label change has played a pivotal role in helping us secure new distributors and more opportunities,” said Bella Pablo, Badger Mountain Vineyard’s D2C and marketing manager.

SevenFifty Daily reports that Badger Mountain is forecasting 20 to 25 percent sales growth in 2026 as the redesigned bottles reach the market.

Successful rebrands don't discard history. The strongest move is knowing what equity to keep—and what needs to evolve.

Before the first sketch, Sara Nelson and her team clarify where the business wants to go and uncover the story customers will connect with.

Design That Buyers Connect With

Revelation by Goose Ridge celebrates three generations of women whose influence reaches from the vineyard and cellar through sales and marketing. Sara Nelson Design translated that legacy into a distinctive brand identity and package.

“Revelation is driving new consumer engagement with 185% national growth,” Quintessential Wines co-owner Dennis Kreps told Shanken News Daily. Kreps also praised the brand’s visually compelling labels and clear positioning.

The response from the trade was just as telling.

Wineries and distributors usually pursue retailers for placement. Shortly after Revelation entered distribution, a major retailer reversed that dynamic, calling the winery to say it wanted both the wine and the package in its stores.

That is what effective wine branding can do: give consumers something to recognize and buyers something they want to put on the shelf.

Build a Highly Valuable Asset

Sara Nelson and her team approach every wine brand development project knowing that the brand itself can become one of a winery owner’s most valuable assets.

Recent industry news illustrates why.

In the Pacific Rim bankruptcy, WarRoom Cellars acquired the Pacific Rim brand along with approximately one year of inventory, while the winery’s property and equipment entered a separate liquidation process, according to Northwest Wine Report.

The transaction is instructive. A winery’s name, identity, customer recognition and market position can retain commercial value independent of its physical property and equipment.

What Does Your Label Need to Do?

Does it need to support a new price point? Attract distributor interest? Become more recognizable on the shelf? Communicate your story more clearly?

Those are business questions before they are design questions.

Sara Nelson Design explores them through its Facets of Your Brilliant Brand™ process, a deep dive that establishes the brand’s positioning, audience, story and ambitions before identity and packaging decisions begin.

If your winery is ready to build a stronger brand—from its strategic foundation through identity and packaging—start the conversation at SaraNelson.com or call 509-545-4584.