When one thinks of Well Hung wine, which words come to mind? Bawdy? Probably. Delicious? Absolutely. Culturally significant? Well, that one seems like a stretch. At least, any one of us would have said so. But then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art came calling.
In an exhibit running from Nov. 20 – Apr. 17, the SFMOMA displays “How Wine Became Modern“, a collection of significant wine artifacts, multimedia presentations, and contemporary labels, which place the wine industry in today’s cultural context as it has developed since 1976 when the earth-shaking Judgment of Paris rated Californian wines above France’s in a blind tasting.
One of the highlights of the exhibit, designed by the New York architecture studio Diller Scofidio and Renfro, is a wall of wine, “Labels and Storytelling”, featuring 200 labels. The diverse collection of bottles is arranged categorically, each one subsumed by a branching genre of associative qualities attributable to the label’s story and brand identity. And lo! What bottle do I spy there that is both “Cheeky” and “Sex”?
We could hardly believe that our little label was deemed museum-worthy, but we excitedly shipped a bottle out to San Francisco a few months ago and waited for its moment in the spotlight.. er.. track lighting.
One of Well Hung’s owners, artiste Tracy Verkerke, and her daughter Therese, took a very serious, professional-like, trip out to San Francisco last weekend for the opening and snapped the great pictures you’ve seen in this post.
We’re honored to have been selected as a part of this ground breaking exhibit. If you want to learn more about it, check out the page on SFMOMA’s website, here. We were titillated to see a specific, albeit brief, mention in the San Francisco Station, which recently wrote about the show: “One of the highlights of the exhibit, the art of the wine label, features nearly 200 wine bottles suspended in rows against a white backdrop. Categorized by similar concepts and images, such as ‘Good + Evil’ and ‘Truth or Consequences,’ the label art illustrates how wine has taken on attributes far beyond just the wine itself. My favorite section is ‘Cheeky,’ which features humorous labels such as ‘Well Hung’ and ‘Fat Bastard.’” How cool!
If you want to see some more pictures from Tracy and Therese’s trip, there’s a whole album on our Facebook page devoted to it.
And remember, Californians: yours is one of the few states to which we can actually ship wine. So if you see us on the wall and want to actually know what’s inside the bottle, go ahead and order one (or five!) from our online store.
Cheers!
