Why the New Monte Volpe Label?
Why the New Monte Volpe Label?
Let me preface this story by saying this; my apologies, it’s a little long and convoluted and some of it is subjectively trivial. Yet, I think it paints a picture of what it’s like to work in a family business and how life kind of evolves/revolves around the winery and this crazy business in general.
There’s that saying about how if you try to please all, you please none. So, I understand that some people will or will not like what we do, and let me tell you, we have had a lot of people tell us that they HATED the old Monte Volpe label and that it was the ugliest label they have ever seen! However, that label has won multiple design awards and we had some people tell us they LOVED it, it was their favorite! None of that really bothered me or elated me. It was part of doing business. The net reaction was fine and I happened to like it. But in the name of maintaining modernity, we have slowly but surely changed the look of our labels but Monte Volpe hasn’t had much of a facelift in the last 36 years. For a long time we kicked around the idea of changing it, but nothing ever came to fruition.
Now, you know us, we’re constantly picking up fruit from very cool and unique vineyards that have lost their contracts or… I don’t know, name a scenario, we have probably been a part of it! If you have stuck around with us for a while, you may remember the one vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon we made from the Nauman Vineyard in 2018. If case you don’t remember, it was a neat, old, head trained vineyard in the Talmage district of the Ukiah Valley. Long story short the owner lost the contract and couldn’t sell the grapes, but was told to reach out to us and that we might take it up. So, we did. It made great wine too. But historically, we don’t make Cabernet. Greg tossed the idea to me that maybe it could be “my thing”. I thought that wasn’t a half bad idea! So of course, like all crazy wine people do, I laid in bed at nights thinking about it. What to do with it? (That was the easy part, barrel age it for at least 3 years, give it some nice new French Burgundy barrels and voilà, it would great) But what to call it? What kind of label would I like? The rabbit hole was deep. But I had awhile to think about, so it I kept it in the back reaches of my brain.
As you might have figured out, I love a good book on natural history. While I was thinking about this wine I was reading a couple books, at least one of which you’ve heard me talk about before American Buffalo by Steven Rinella and Coyote America by Dan Flores. When I was reading, I was getting really focused on the relationship that humans have with animals and the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey equation/model. For you math lovers like me out there, it is “a pair of first-order nonlinear differential equations, frequently used to describe the dynamics of biological systems in which two species interact, one as a predator and the other as prey and the populations change through time according to a pair of two equations.” It’s really just an equation that states a population changes depending how much pressure a “predator” is putting on its “prey”. But it really got me thinking about our relationship with animals. We have obviously had an effect on them. However, it was their effect on us that I was really pondering. As someone who takes pride in hunting, animal husbandry, and of course having pets, I could argue animals have had a greater impact on me than I have had them. Quite a bit of my life revolves around them, and I cherish them for that. And I wonder still… do animals realize their impact on us? Because of the way my pets interact with me, I believe they know how to sway me and know I love them. Do they ever think about their relationship with us?
In the midst of all this I stumbled across the now notorious image that currently graces the Monte Volpe wines (October, 2020). I was elated. This was almost exactly what I was thinking about put into an image; a fox pondering the mask of a human face. What does the animal think of the notion of Man? Don’t humans seem so silly in their pursuits? I also thought it was perfect because it had the fox – my quiet homage to my dad and everything he has done. It also fit the typical esoteric Cabernet Sauvignon label stereotype, which I took to my advantage.
So, I printed it out, carefully cut out the image and rubber banded it on a blank bottle. I loved it. I put in my office and there it sat for a long time. The Cab project didn’t end up becoming mine. We made the wine and put it under our Graziano label. I didn’t mind; Dad was going to do what I wanted to do with it anyway. I moved on from it. The bottle still sat by my desk, collecting dust.
I’m not sure what wild hair caught my dad one day, but I remember my dad picking up my mock up bottle and telling me, “This is going to be the new Monte Volpe label. Let’s try it.” I was floored. Maybe it was unconsciously seeing that image day after day he grew to like it. Maybe he just wanted to try out the drastic change. Maybe he just wanted to do something nice for me. I thought he was crazy. I thought everyone would hate it. But secretly, I was excited. It’s debut was the 2019 Monte Volpe Peppolino.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but Wendy White, our amazing designer of everything we do, helped us bring the rest of the label to life. She found where the image came from (I had no idea originally) and it turned out to be a 15thcentury woodcut from a German book on theater. We eventually moved all the Monte Volpe labels to the new label. The bottle with the rubber banded printed label sat in my office for a long time. My own little personal reminder.
So, I hope you like the new Monte Volpe label! If you don’t, I get it. It’s the opposite of Heritage labels. It’s not girly. There are no flowers. There’s no glitz or glam. It’s stark. It’s thought provoking. And I like it that way. Thanks, Dad, for seeing my vision!
-Cheers!
Alexandra