Sex Sells
Back in college I had an advertising class called "Sex Sells" - there wasn't an empty seat in the house.
Now once a week someone will tell me, half ashamed, "I buy whatever wine has the coolest label".
Listen, there's no shame to label shopping. In fact, I'd argue it's hardwired into our DNA.
As hunter-gatherers we picked fruit. And Mother Nature makes eye-catching fruit as a way to say - "Hey idiots, eat me!". I'm assuming Eve, even though it was her first apple, went after the best looking one. After all, there's no sense damning yourself for eternity over a half-ripe piece of fruit.
Nowadays Mother Nature is replaced with a clever marketer, and tempting fruit has been traded for a luscious Cabernet. But you get the analogy. Buy what looks good.
The Machete label was chosen after a causal naked photo shoot. And what better place to have a naked photo shoot than the Calistoga city dump. God, I wonder what the dump employees were thinking? The creative team ended up taking thousands of shots from which winemaker Dave Phinney chose his 12 favorites - each label in a case is different.
Orin Swift's 2015 Machete is as bold as its label. A delicious, big-boned red blend the Machete starts with ripe cherry and moves into charred meaty goodness. This baby has a lot of charachter and should be paired with a big meal.