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In the days of English bottling, labelling rules were a bit anarchic and the control exerted by the producers over labelling varied considerably.

Inducting a well cellared case of Dow 80 however, whose labels are all detached, one missing and most decayed, draws my attention to the fact that we need some sort of protocol for replacing labels on more recent bottles.

Such labels must not be seen as breach of copyright by the producers, although I assume that only applies if they are re-sold. Generic labels, as used by some merchants on old ancient bottles just don't look right on more recent ones however.

After scanning a label, I'm thinking that the words 'replacement label' ought to be added to the text discretely.

Ordinary copier paper doesn't make for good replacements, but coated 100gsm paper on an inkjet printer seems satisfactory.

Scanning the best of the Dow 80 labels and cleaning up the image on the computer did not take too long, and it seems logical having got thus far to make a set of images for all the other vintages - but what is the font used for the vintage year? Very hard to work out..

The replacement label itself should be dated and named. “Replacement label by Tom Archer added July 2019.”

“Replacement label by Tom Archer added July 2019.”

It's not that much of a challenge to create an Excel based application that could generate a label from a set of scanned templates and a set of stored parameters for each template to indicate the position size and font of the vintage date, that could then instantly generate and print a label for any vintage date you cared to enter into a dialog box.

Such a label could be easily date stamped to identify the creator and date of production.

In addition to creating replacement labels for those that are beyond redemption, a label creation application could also be useful when shipping old bottles to countries that are fussy about the information given on imported alcohol labels, so whilst leaving the remnants of an original label on one side of a bottle, a fresh one on the opposite side could be applied in the same style, but with the required additional information added at the bottom.

However, I'm not going to even start going down this route without the blessing of the producers.

I think that would be prudent.
I have now started tagging my purchases with more detail and I might eventually get to a label of sorts which is my design and has the information I want on the bottle on it but there could be no confusion

I just write on the bottle with a chalk pen. It's then clear what the contents of the bottle are and is also clearly not an official label. I number each bottle so that I can then track back its provenance and know how long I've owned it.

I just write on the bottle with a chalk pen. It's then clear what the contents of the bottle are and is also clearly not an official label. I number each bottle so that I can then track back its provenance and know how long I've owned it.

For cellar records I have two methods of marking port bottles that are out of their original cases.

For bottles that are racked for current drinking, I use strung paper luggage tags which I guillotine down to keep them tidy. Each bottle has a case number and each bottle within a case is accorded a letter suffix, so 123C is case 123, third bottle.

I have also use liquid chalk for bottles that are not yet current drinking but have already been weighed once, and will be assigned an order of drinking when they are weighed a second time and the ullage rates are calculated. One of the bottles is marked with a small plastic key fob that gives the case number. The metal ring is replaced with a small rubber band. Each bottle is then given a temporary serial number to link with the weighing records.

I find the best place to use put the liquid chalk is on the shoulder, as it's least likely to get accidentally rubbed off there. Once the bottles are weighed a second time, ordered and tagged, the chalk marks will be wiped off.