Create Your Own Label

“That is so clever,” he noted, turning the wine bottle so that he could see the full label. “They’ve a photo of the bride and groom on here with the wedding date, and the whole bit!”

The front of the chilled Sonoma, California chardonnay had beads of silvery condensation on it, and was delightfully cool to the touch. To the eye, the label on the wine was indeed unique. Instead of the normal staid presentation of facts about the wine type, vineyard, and such, there was a picture of the bride and groom on their first date, taken eight years ago. A print of intertwining golden leaves framed the photo, making the couple in the photo appear to be enclosed by a forest of pleasant yellow.

“I wonder who in the family took the time to design and paste on all these photo? There must be some artsy soul in the bunch,” he concluded.

The woman with whom he was having the conversation picked up her glass of wine and took a sip. “Well, you’re talking to that artsy fartsy person right now.”

“Oh. Oh! Well, tell me, how did you do it and how long did it take you?,” he asked. He was definitely impressed with this apparent master of the arts.

The woman, though, took her time in answering. She skillfully balanced her wine in one hand and slowly and luxuriously adjusted her white linen dress with the other. When that small task was complete, she took a slow sip from her glass.

“I don’t know you very well…,” she trailed off.

“Jacob,” he said.

“Thank you, Jacob. As I was saying, I don’t really know you that well, and one never gives away secrets of the trade to just any inquisitive outsider,” she said half jokingly.

“Ah, you are a tough one! I knew that I’d liked you for some reason,” he said with glee in his voice. “But, you must tell me more about your craft.”

“Alright, well, I have also done several of these customized bottles for parties of the company that I work for. The wines could be just about anything, from the Chardonnays which you see here before you to Cabernet Sauvignons. I have even done labels like these for bottled water, too.,” she said with pride.

Jacob’s eyebrows went up, as did his esteem of her. “You must be quite the efficient artisan, madam, to pull off such feats! I must say that I am impressed, quite impressed.”

By now Jacob was positively beaming at her. Here was a woman who was coy, clever and very easy on the eyes. Most importantly, she was a challenge!

Another sly grin stole over the face of the lady with whom he flirted as she said, “Jacob, I think that I can let you in on my secret. Would you like to know how it is that I do what I do?,” she asked him and winked one eye.

Jacob needed no time to think over his response to such a question. “Yes, I do believe that I would enjoy that most wholeheartedly,” he said.

“Then, you must come close, so that I can put my mouth near your ear,” she said.

Slowly and purposefully, Jacob inched his body closer to hers. Their faces came closer, closer and she turned at the last moment to avoid a brush of lips. He smiled at her skillful move.

Purring in his ear, she whispered, “Take out your phone and give it to me.”

Puzzled now, Jacob reached into his suit jacket and produced his PDA. He tossed it to her, but stayed right next to her as she punched the phone’s buttons.

After a few seconds, she tossed the phone back to him. He was even more confused now. “Take a look,” was all that she said.

On his phone was a website, SignatureWines.com. As he read the opening page of the site, he burst out into laughter! That was how she had made all those unique, personalized labels. She had ordered them from the website!

“So, now you know my secret! Signature Wines & Beverages has a large selection of wines and drinks from the California wine country, and the best part is that you can design your own label online or you can choose from some pre designed labels that they already have made,” she said.

“That sounds pretty simple, something that even I could do,” Jacob said, still laughing a bit to himself. “Well, I must admit, I was enjoying our conversation and the story about these beautiful labels so much, that I left me wide open and you got me. Yes, you did, you got me!”

“On the contrary, Jacob,” she said, “if I had ‘gotten you’ as you claim, it would probably be our pictures that people would be seeing on these wine labels, don’t you think?”