After crawling our way out of the large piles of boxes, envelopes and packages that have been collecting on the floor of the editorial department for the past two months, we managed to get to the other side of the office and recruit some co-workers judging the label contest. The boxes were ripped, the envelopes opened and the bottles were displayed under the bright lights of the judging table. The multiple personalities of our small office converged and began the battle of aesthetic opinions. Let\'s see, the publisher, all business, the ad salesman, you might think would be all business but has a soft spot for poetry and - as it turns out - flowers, the art director, well, use your imagination, and the two editors, editor one and editor two, we\'re all about convincing copy and catchy names. All in all, the scales were pretty well balanced.

I love hearing from readers. Through letters, phone calls, e-mail and reader surveys, the opinions and insights of our WineMaker subscribers never fail to educate and entertain. And there’s nothing more entertaining — nothing that provides a more fascinating peek into the winemaking minds of our readers — than the hundreds of homemade labels that arrived in our office this fall.

When the economy isn’t cooperating like we would like, it’s always a good idea to start buying generic. But that doesn’t mean any of us need to give up on every kind of label. In fact, by the looks of the winners of this year’s annual label competition, home winemaking never looked so good!

This year, just as in those past, we received many amazing home wine label designs, which always provides a challenge for us to narrow it down to a handful of winners. Our expert panel of judges, after much deliberation, finally agreed on a sky filled with parachuting weiner dogs, a “hare”-itage Bourdeaux blend with bouncing bunnies, something a little classic and simple, and an out-and-out superhero.

Thank you everyone who entered for sharing your imaginative designs with us — it’s always a lot of fun to see everyone’s entries. And many thanks to our sponsors for donating all the great winning prizes.

Long after the last drop of wine is emptied from a bottle, we can still enjoy the memories of that vintage — just by looking at the label. This year we received many entries to our annual label contest, and based on what we saw there are a lot of great (tasting) memories out there. Have a glass of wine and take a look at this year’s winning entries. Congratulations to all the winners, thank you to the prize donors and everyone who entered — you made judging a tough job!

Who says you can’t choose a wine based on the label? We certainly don’t! In fact each year we can’t wait to see the thousands of entries for the WineMaker label contest. Ranging from the simple, elegant and austere to the wild, wacky and whimsical, we had a great time choosing which would be this year’s best.

While the competition was certainly fierce (we loved them all!) we somehow narrowed it down to a Grand Prize winner with a love for all things Gorey (as in Edward), a goofy Gold-winning Gewürztraminer, a Silver from “St. Somewhere,” and a Bronze winner with a wild side. Congratulations to all!