Wine Labelling

With more than a decade’s experience in wine labelling, UPM Raflatac has a thorough understanding of the labelling conditions in the wine industry process.

Carefully selected label face materials meet every requirement for aesthetics and functionality, and although films have begun to be more widely adopted, the focus remains on coated and textured paper materials.

Wet strength and alkali-resistant treatments

• All UPM Raflatac paper faces for wine labelling have a wet strength treatment which helps the paper fibres withstand fluctuations in temperature and humidity and prevents the formation of wrinkles and bubbles during the labelling process and in storage.
   
• An alkali-resistant treatment is required when wine bottles are returned and cycled through a washing process. Papers with this treatment, combined with a dedicated wash-off adhesive, remain intact during the wash-off process to leave the machinery unobstructed. The term WSA is used to denote label papers with combined wet-strength and alkali-resistant treatments.

Exquisite labels for quality wines and spirits

Labels for high-quality wines and spirits are often elaborate, typically printed using an offset process in up to ten or more colours on cast-coated, textured or metallised papers.

Complementary techniques such as embossing and hot foiling are also used. UV flexography is used when printing coated papers, for example when labelling standard quality wines produced in large volumes. Digital printing techniques are beginning to be more common in the wine label business.