Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

How to Make Your Own Labels for Booze (and Why You Should)

By

Making your own wine, beer, or spirits labels is a fun and relatively straightforward way to personalize a few precious bottles. It continues to be my go-to option for a creative wedding gift – one that’s more likely to be enjoyed and cellared than placed in storage and forgotten about (here’s looking at you, gravy boat).

Mark Stock/The Manual

Legally, you can’t sell these custom labels, but you can pass them along as presents or keep them for your own enjoyment. Either way, they’re sure to impart some character and a great way to commemorate an occasion or even dress up a generic bottle of bottom shelf wine.

Recommended Videos

How to Create Your Own Labels

1. Soak

Unless you’re dealing with shiners (a bottle without a label), you’ll need to soak the preexisting labels off. Placing the bottles in a tub of water overnight generally gets the job done. If the labels are pesky and leave an adhesive trail, apply some Goo Gone and rub vigorously with a course towel or brush until all is removed. Dunk the bottle back in the water occasionally to rinse off the discarded label bits.

2. Design

Use basic graphic design software like Word or Pages to create a label. Go Photoshop if you’re feeling detail-oriented (and can do more than simply open the program). Be sure to take some measurements to find the right size as there’s a lot of variation in bottle size. I tend to work with old photos of the person I’m gifting to or eye-catching vintage maps of places that have some kind of relevance to me or the married-couple-to-be. A tremendous resource in this regard comes from the University of Texas; the school’s massive library of old-timey maps make for eye-catching labels.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In terms of what else to include, I tend to include at least the alcohol percentage of the bottled product and the vintage, variety, and general region, if it’s a wine. Your new name of the product can be anything from the initials of the recipient to some fishing hole you’re particularly fond of — plenty of room for creative license here.

3. Print

Print the labels on adhesive paper (you can get 100 full-size sheets for around $18). Note that you may have to adjust your printer settings to accommodate the thicker sheets. If you lack a printer, most print shops and office supply stores can do it for you on the cheap. Just send them a digital version or pack it along on a thumb drive.

Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

4. Affix

Make sure your bottles are completely dry first. Then, pull the backing paper off of the sheets and affix them to the bottles. A few bubbles may arise beneath the labels but you should be able to manage these with a little pressure and a rub or two. My experience suggests the ink can fade a bit in the elements, especially excessive sunlight, so store them in a cool, dark spot when you can.

In retrospect, this should probably have been my side business, especially during the pre-Etsy era.

Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
Topics

Editors’ Recommendations

How to steam milk: Perfect your technique for rich, creamy coffee drinks
Learn to steam milk like a Barista
steamed milk

As an aspiring barista, I've grown to understand the importance of steamed milk in making all of my favorite drinks. To learn how to make a cappuccino at home, I had to master the art of making steamed milk. Learning how to steam milk at home is difficult, but you'll need to commit to learning if you want to expand the types of coffee drinks you can make at home. Teaching yourself how to steam milk will allow you to experiment with all kinds of elaborate espresso drinks just like you order at the café -- from the cafe au laits to cappuccinos.
Steamed milk vs. frothed milk

As you experiment with how to steam milk, it's key to understand the slight differences between steamed milk and frothed milk. In the world of coffee-making, these two are often confused -- and I completely understand why. To help you know the difference, consider how you'd make a latte. The ratio of espresso to milk in a latte is usually 3:1, with espresso on the bottom, steamed milk on the top, and a light layer of frothed milk on the top.

Read more
How to use a milk frother: Simple tips and tricks to elevate your drinks
Here's how to use a milk frother with ease
Cappuccino

Once you've mastered brewing the perfect coffee at home, the next step in every home Barista's journey is to learn how to use a milk frother. You'll need frothed milk to enjoy specialty-type coffees from your kitchen, such as lattes and cappuccinos. At one point, I was intimated by the concept of frothing my milk, as it can sound more complicated than it is. Learning to use a milk frother is easy enough for coffee lovers of any skill level. Here are two of my favorite ways to froth milk for coffee at home, ideal for those who do not have an espresso maker with a steam wand attachment.
How to use a milk frother: Hand frothing

Using a handheld wand milk frother is one of the easiest methods for frothing milk at home. A handheld milk frother can be used in your mug and is an excellent option for those who don't have an espresso maker at home. Before I had an espresso machine with a steam wand at home, I found the handheld milk frother to be my go-to for frothing milk for coffee. I like this method because it requires minimal skill and clean-up (always a motivating factor when making coffee at home instead of ordering it out at a cafe).

Read more
How to read a wine label: Decoding symbols, numbers, and certifications
What to look for on the bottle
Multiple wine bottles sitting on surface

With wine labels, the prose is not always straightforward. In fact, there are nouns, numbers, and symbols you might not be fully familiar with. But it pays to have some context, as the last thing you want to do is shell out your hard-earned money for a wine from the wrong American Viticultural Area or made in a way that doesn't agree with your dietary restrictions or environmental stance.

You can probably locate the alcohol content or even the grape varieties that go into the blend, but can you pick out the region? How can you tell if it's made from organically farmed grapes? Did they add sulfites? These are valid questions, especially in an age where we very much want to know about the companies we fund, let alone what exactly we're putting into our bodies. Keep reading to learn how to read a wine label.

Read more