Sans Liege Wines – Wine maker Curt Schalchlin
I met Curt Schalchlin for the first time at the ‘Rhone Rangers 2009 Tasting Event’ in San Francisco, California. Drawn to his table by the intriguing designs of his wine labels I was greatly enjoyed trying his wines but was really excited about the combination of the striking labels with such a good wine offer.
Coming from a design back ground I wanted to learn more about the story behind these labels and so contacted Curt directly.
The first wine he produced was in 2004, a GSM which was called ‘Trifecta’. He decided that he wanted to combine the product with packaging of equal merit and hired a friend who was a tattoo artist to draw up an image of hands holding
grapes, which were then placed on an oversized bottle, which was then wax-dipped.
He used the same technique for his next vintage, which was the ‘Cotes-du-Coast’, and the ‘Offering’ however became less enchanted with the oversized bottle and wax dip as the year progressed after many industry people complained about opening wax dipped bottles and consumers let him know that the bottle didn’t fit in their cellars. That is when the whole redesign began…
Still wanting to over deliver he moved onto smaller bottles and foils but compensated with eye catching original labels. The foils are half foils and the corks were redesigned to be read underneath the foils. Curt spent a large amount of time researching artists for inspiration and finally found Lynd Ward from the late 1920’s that really impressed and inspired him.
Lynd Ward is considered by many to be the father of graphic art for America. His
work is totally unique. Constructing five different novels all in woodcuts with no
words. Ward was the inspiration behind the ‘Sancha’, ‘The Offering’ and the ‘Cotes du Coast’ labels. These labels were drawn by an
artist named Gene Ploss in New York. The ‘Grenache’ and ‘The Prophetess’ are
actual woodcuts from the German Expressionist movement.
As to the meanings,
The Offering: This wine represents all the vineyards and varietals I work
with in a given vintage and it is what I am giving back, my offering, from
each harvest.
Cotes du Coast: Inspired from Cotes du Rhone, being untraditional rhone
blends from the Central Coast as opposed to the Rhone.
Sancha: Means mistress in Spanish. In the cellar Curt always hears the workers
bragging about their ‘Sancha’s’. I have always found these relationships to
be strange because they are more than just casual flings. The men brag of
the fact that they have a Sancha but also contribute to their households and
it seems from the outside that this is like their second homes without their
children. So the Sancha to me is a real standout blend that also came from
the same lot that I use to make the Cotes du Coast. The label reads “Sancha
or my other white wine.”
Prophetess: ‘The Prophetess’ is another small blend made up of barrels that
were really ‘speaking to him’ around the time of the 2006 bottling. It is made
up of a barrel of an 06 Syrah blend of three vineyards from Santa Barbara,
one 07 Syrah from the Santa Barbara Highlands vineyard and an 07 Mourvedre
barrel from the same vineyard. The Prophetess is so named because it was
bottled during the 06 bottling but contains the next vintage as well,
looking or peaking at the future.
Wines should not need ornate or exciting labels to sell, instead recommend themselves on their own merit. However wine making is an art form and wine labels, which acknowledge this, should not be overlooked. I found Curt’s wines to be exciting, with complex, surprising flavours and indulgent noses which seductively drew the drinker in. However his attention to the design of his wine labels should not be overlooked. Here is a wine maker who does not stop the design process with the wine itself, instead he has combined a ‘package’ of art in both the bottle exterior and the contents of the bottle.
For more information or to order directly:
