Cheers to 45 Years of Wondrous Labels
We get a lot of questions about our muscat and moscato labels.
Our wines have almost always been accustomed to vibrant and impactful labels which portray the personality of the wine, and we take a lot of pride in the significant role they’ve played for us over the years. The truth is, we see our wine as fine art, and that is much of the inspiration behind the look and feel of these labels, and why we used original art pieces for them in the first place. So, in the spirit of our 45th anniversary, we’re going to dive into a brief history of how these works of art came to be!
Essensia
Ardison Phillips is the artist behind each of our muscat and moscato labels, and it all started with Essensia. The image itself is an artistic representation of oranges and orange blossoms, flavors and aromas which the Orange Muscat grape is well known for. The splatter paint effect with quick brush strokes embodies the wine’s bold flavor and rich gold color. A gentleman by the name of John Coy is another important factor in our label history. He crafted the supporting elements, such as the border, text, and font, for our early Essensia label (left). The revised label you will see on the 2018 vintage of Essensia (right), and those to come, is the first deviation from Coy’s original layout. The nearly 40 years that the original label remained unchanged is a testament to Coy’s work.
Elysium
The Elysium heart was also painted by Ardison and was originally featured on the front of our early port wines. According to Andrew Quady, “The heart and vibrant colors in front of the port bottles depicts how port warms the heart and soul.” Elysium in Greek means, “state of eternal bliss,” and the heart was painted to capture that feeling and idea. After our first Black Muscat dessert wine was created in 1983, which is now the Elysium people know and love, Laurel Quady knew the heart belonged to this new dessert wine. Once again, John Coy was brought in to maintain consistency between the labels by designing its supporting design elements. Below are the original heart and Elysium labels from the left to right: Quady Amador County California Port, bottled in 1982, Elysium Black Muscat Sweet Dessert Wine Vintage 1998, and Elysium Black Muscat Sweet Dessert Wine Vintage 2013.
Electra
All three of our Electra Moscato wines portray the bold, radiant and colorful angel that we all recognize. Our first Electra label was not the colorful gothic angel you see today. Ardison took a new approach to this label in 1990 after Electra was first released. He had gone to art school in Pennsylvania to study art and wanted to apply his new understanding of the renaissance in order to create the perfect painting for our Electra Moscato wine. His knowledge of art during the renaissance time period inspired him to create an angel with wings of feathers with different colors. This was a bright and vibrant take on what angels used to look like in churches. The face of the angel is what connects the label to Quady Winery on a personal level. It is a depiction of the Quady’s daughter, Allie Quady. Some elements of this joyous label has changed throughout the years, but the gleaming angel will never change! Below are the past and current Electra labels which feature Ardison’s original artwork.
Want to see the original artworks mentioned above for yourself? Come and visit us at our tasting room where they are displayed! For our tasting room hours and location, visit our visiting and events page!
Cheers to 45 years of sweet bliss!