MORE LUCE FOR YOUR BEST VINTAGES

“Don’t judge a book by its cover”, it is often said. What may be true for books, is not necessarily so for wine. An attractive label applied to a simple bottle can make a tremendous difference to its shelf presence. There are umpteen ways and an infinite number of materials to make a statement and ensure that a good bottle of wine catches the eye. A label identifies a wine in the eyes of the consumer. It tells the history of the wine, its personality, its quality, the way it tastes and smells.

In recent years the trend in wine labels has focussed less on aesthetics and more on researching the use of simple, textured materials; the texture has not been important in itself but seen more in terms of its unique technical properties for the printing process.

LUCE is Ritrama’s response to the need for an aesthetically pleasing label. The latest addition to the Ritrama family of special papers for wine labels and part of the Wine & Spirits collection, LUCE, was launched officially one year ago and has proven a most innovative product, making it one of the biggest successes of recent years. LUCE is a white natural paper, opaque and quite thick. It has a texture that feels a little rough and is made from virgin cellulose and synthetic fibres. How does it differ from other natural papers? The real particularity of LUCE is the watermark effect produced when it is hot printed.

Industry experts know how complex it is to produce traditional watermarked paper. It is a very intricate and expensive process requiring huge purchase volumes. With LUCE, however, you can produce even very complex watermark images without inks or foil simply by applying pressure with the printing group normally used for hot lamination. This method of printing with LUCE gives printers the possibility of adding a personalised watermark effect even to small runs of material, with significant time and cost savings compared to the traditional technique.

LUCE is particularly suited to labelling white and rosé wines with the play of light and transparency optimising the special attributes of the materials. LUCE is available to order in the standard and barrier versions.