Critique Wine and a Gilded Letter

[Mike Buckley]

This wine is a French Grenache privately labeled by my wine club. The label is so beautiful that if the wine is good, that will be like icing on the cake. The high alcohol content, nearly 16%, makes me skeptical.

Setup
The tabletop is a silk pocket square. A medium continuous-light lamp was high above the scene on the right. A white relfector on the left lifted the shadow tones in that area of the scene and another one above the scene lit some of the letters on the label in red tones (without the reflector the letters were black). Those red tones were added to the other letters during post-processing.

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[Palouse]

Exquisitely photographed, Mike.
Yeah, 16% is very un-French like, but. . . . let's keep an open mind!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Nick!

let's keep an open mind!

Will do! It will be at least next week before I try the wine, as none of the meals I've planned for the rest of this week will pair well with it.

 

[Palouse]

I would think your fabulous burgers would be a very good choice!

 

[Mike Buckley]

I would think your fabulous burgers would be a very good choice!

That reminds me that I haven't had my monthly burger. Even so, I always eat it at lunch and I rarely drink wine for lunch.

 

[Palouse]

That reminds me that I haven't had my monthly burger. Even so, I always eat it at lunch and I rarely drink wine for lunch.

What's wrong with you?

 

[Mike Buckley]

What's wrong with you?

That list is way too long to begin discussing here.

 

[Mike Buckley]

That reminds me that I haven't had my monthly burger.

Problem now solved. Thanks for your reminder. The August edition of the World's Best Hamburger was as good as ever.

 

[Binnur]

Very nice presentation of an elegant looking label Mike!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Binnur!

 

[Walter Rowe]

Wouldn’t a “Gilded Letter” be, oh, I don’t know, gilded (gold)?

Great closeup photo of the label.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Walter!

Wouldn’t a “Gilded Letter” be, oh, I don’t know, gilded (gold)?

My thought exactly! Even the rest of the label that might be thought of as gold once it's understood that it's supposed to look gilded appears beige in every lighting scenario I've observed it including in my photo.

 

[Mitchell]

Mike, this really is a beautiful label and your photo does it justice. You've captured the texture of the embossing nicely with your expert lighting.

Any shots of the entire bottle?

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Mitch!

Any shots of the entire bottle?

No, I made only the photo displayed here. That's because I wanted the largest magnification possible of the label, as I can include the entire bottle when photographing other bottles that don't have labels displaying such elegant detail.

 

[Mike Buckley]

The high alcohol content, nearly 16%, makes me skeptical.

My wife and I drank some of this wine last night. I had forgotten about the high alcohol content until my first sip. Way too much alcohol for my taste, as I prefer the taste of fruit.