So we made a little vino...

Last September we started a little wine project at a local company, Grape Expectations. We picked out what type of grapes we wanted to use and their proportion and then came in now and again to stem the grapes, press the grapes, transfer into barrels, and all the other fun stuff involved with making wine. Actually, the best part was indulging in wine and appetizers every time we showed up for our very official "wine appointments". It was a perfect excuse to plan mini parties mid-week, which was right up my ally! When it was all said and done, our portion of the barrel yielded about 65 bottles of wine!

Of course, my favorite part of this whole thing was getting to create the labels for our bottles. Well, let me correct that last statement....I'm sure my favorite part will be drinking the wine, but it's not really ready until Christmas. I'm hoping that it will be a very merry Christmas indeed :)

With all the wine in the house I felt line a wino, and I was about ready to stick each bottle in a paper bag and roll like the real winos roll. Instead I came up with an idea for making lots lof cheap wine very special. So, left with 65 unlabled bottles, my new gocco machine, and a 40% off coupon at Michaels, I started down the path of making my own wine labels. From that came "Brown Paper Bag" wine.

I started with cutting rectangles out of brown packing paper...


Created a gocco screen with my design with a carbon pen. The labels say
Brown
Paper
Bag
Wine
2008
Future Fauskes Vineyards
Once the screen was made, I inked it up!


Placed a brown paper rectangle down and pressed...

and viola...Brown Paper Bag Wine labels!


After I crinkled the labels up, I ran them through a sticker machine so that they would stick to the bottles...

And then it was time to label our bottles...

Overall, lots of effort, but totally worth it. Only my second attempt at gocco, but can I just say this....I soooooo heart gocco!