Tarot Wine!

[Rodney]

I was in Costco (warehouse store) today and saw Marseilles tarot images on Cabernet Sauvignon wine bottles! Each bottle had a different Majors card image on it. Tarot and Wine - two of my favorite things together! Prophecy is the vintner behind this wine. A quick Google search brought up this article https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-labels-design-tarot/ with some images. None of them are Marseilles though.

 

Here's what I saw:

 

I didn't buy any cause I have way too much wine right now. But if it's still available in a few months, I'll definitely buy one to try it out.

[Decan]

This means that Tarot has become something trendy, not anymore an occult tool with an aura of secrets.

This can explain all the piracy of course. But I don't know if this is a cause for rejoicing though, or maybe with more wine 😁

 

The Soprafino is fine on the bottle here, maybe Temperance instead of Justice?

 

[katrinka]

9 minutes ago, Decan said:

The Soprafino is fine on the bottle here, maybe Temperance instead of Justice?

 

Temperance? You're no fun.

[Kath]

What a great way to work through the major arcana!  🙂 🍷

[TheFeeLion]

... I'm a little leery of this wine company... Maybe I've become a bit of a wine snob since I work in the wine industry... I love the labels but I wouldn't expect much from the wine itself. I could be completely wrong though. 

 

As for the art itself, for the labels on their standard wines they have an artist they worked with (there's a page on their site with a small write up about her). I'd love to see her do a whole deck 😊

[katrinka]

3 hours ago, TheFeeLion said:

... I'm a little leery of this wine company... Maybe I've become a bit of a wine snob since I work in the wine industry... I love the labels but I wouldn't expect much from the wine itself. I could be completely wrong though.

Suspicions like that usually have some truth to them.
They sell wine with image and illusion. It's like perfume that way: they push a fragrance with all these images of seductiveness, luxury and sophistication. But then you actually smell it, and it will remind you of baby powder and citrus more often than not. 🤣

I'd still probably buy the Tarot wine to make a lamp. That way, even if the wine isn't great, it's not a total loss, lol. Here's a fun one I made out of an absinthe bottle a couple of years ago.

 

 

I don't think I'd do a bare Edison bulb on the Tarot bottle. I did it on the absinthe because the shape of the bulb echoes the pose of the lady holding up the fleur de lys. But that Justice card would look ace with a fringed shade, in red to match her skirt. And it would cast a lovely reddish glow...

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by katrinka

[Decan]

Interesting!

And why not a Major from the Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus (I don't own it), it could give a mysterious prophetic touch to the wine, and if the wine itself is a disappointment, possible*, you can make a lamp with a stunning esoteric atmosphere!

*I just read we can find up to 47 additives in a bottle of wine, depending, and pesticide residues are not something impossible to find either (but of course there are good wines too!)

 

[TheFeeLion]

@katrinka I did a bit more digging and found out they do wine in a can 😱 that's a bit fat nope right there! Definitely quantity over quality!

 

Ooo what a brilliant idea for using beautiful bottles (excuse the pun 😉) 

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, TheFeeLion said:

@katrinka I did a bit more digging and found out they do wine in a can 😱 that's a bit fat nope right there! Definitely quantity over quality!

A CAN???
Ghaaa. Box wine is horrifying enough.
I definitely WON'T be giving them my support by buying the Tarot wine. I'm not trying to be elitist, either. Even horrorwines like MD 20/20 come in glass. Canned wine must be truly awful.

That reminds me, what's going on with corks vs. screwcaps? A cork used to be a pretty reliable indicator that an unfamiliar wine was at least drinkable. Now they're starting to put corks on the bad stuff.

1 hour ago, TheFeeLion said:

Ooo what a brilliant idea for using beautiful bottles (excuse the pun 😉) 

Thanks. It's easy, too, all you need is a drill with a spade bit and one of those lamp wiring kits. The whole process takes less than an hour.

@Decan - That would make a great label!

[TheFeeLion]

2 hours ago, katrinka said:

That reminds me, what's going on with corks vs. screwcaps? A cork used to be a pretty reliable indicator that an unfamiliar wine was at least drinkable. Now they're starting to put corks on the bad stuff.

The whole cork/screw cap thing comes down to failure rate. Cork (particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, as we tend to get lesser quality stuff) has a much higher failure rate. In a case of wine (12 bottles) you can almost guarantee one bottle will be corked. Screw cap is something like 1 in a few million. That's why so many wineries (particularly New World) changed to screw cap. France won't though because not only do they get better quality cork they also have the whole tradition/history thing to think of being as they are of the Old World. Old World wines have been slapped with the "quality" label and the knock on effect of that is "quality" wines are seen to be ones that have cork. So even some New World wineries that do everything else under screw cap will put their topmost tired wines under cork. Another effect of the cork = quality thing is that some wine companies will put average wine under cork to give the impression of quality. 

[katrinka]

2 minutes ago, TheFeeLion said:

Old World wines have been slapped with the "quality" label and the knock on effect of that is "quality" wines are seen to be ones that have cork. So even some New World wineries that do everything else under screw cap will put their topmost tired wines under cork. Another effect of the cork = quality thing is that some wine companies will put average wine under cork to give the impression of quality. 

 

11 hours ago, katrinka said:

They sell wine with image and illusion

I should have known. 🤣

[Decan]

Wine in a can! Oh that's really decadence, the dark age some scriptures predicted, and all 🤪

[DanielJUK]

I love those bottle labels @Rodney I hope someone on the forum tries tasting them one day 🙂

I know tarot and esotericism is very in right now, everything is being used for a brand. I like them really ❤️

They sell an imported Californian wine brand over here called "Chronic Cellars" which has the most amazing fun bottle designs, they see themselves as a little alternative as a brand and here they are the top end price of American Wines but I was recommended them here and was told you are never disappointed from that brand. Their labels have skeletons and devils on and remind me a little of vibrant Día de Muertos imagery. They also have LGBT labels for special editions with money going to charity causes.

 

8 hours ago, TheFeeLion said:

The whole cork/screw cap thing comes down to failure rate. Cork (particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, as we tend to get lesser quality stuff) has a much higher failure rate. In a case of wine (12 bottles) you can almost guarantee one bottle will be corked. Screw cap is something like 1 in a few million. That's why so many wineries (particularly New World) changed to screw cap. France won't though because not only do they get better quality cork they also have the whole tradition/history thing to think of being as they are of the Old World. Old World wines have been slapped with the "quality" label and the knock on effect of that is "quality" wines are seen to be ones that have cork. So even some New World wineries that do everything else under screw cap will put their topmost tired wines under cork. Another effect of the cork = quality thing is that some wine companies will put average wine under cork to give the impression of quality. 

 

Corks on wine is a European tradition and France / Italian vineyards are all about traditional production, you don't change hardly anything in technique over time 🙂 The Corks come from the Cork Oak, with beautiful twisted branches and trunks with little holes in them, they look just like the cork but darker and redder in colour. They mainly grow in Mediterranean climates so you see fields of them in Spain and Portugal to supply the market. I've done quite a few vineyard tours (love them!) and in many European historic wine countries, they truly believe that the traditional way to cork wine is the only way to preserve it for the best flavour. Yes some may have a fault with the cork and it's spoiled (here you can always return it at home or in a restaurant), I have to say I have never had a corked bottle at home, but 3 times drinking out, but it's pretty rare I find, maybe they don't travel long distances too well, dunno.

 

There has been innovation to find the best (cheapest?) sealing of wine for centuries and until about the last ten years they always leaked. Now there are screw tops and plastic corks which seem to work. However traditional vineyards won't touch them, you will rarely find them used in France or Italy. We have a young market in the UK now of wine because our climate has got warmer. Before we were a laughing stock but now it's a success and interestingly they use screw top! However the techniques are all original French with modern systems.

 

I do agree about some wine has a cork to make it seem better than it is but also there is a European traditional, they truly believe it's the best method and nothing will ever replace it. It's the modern newer vineyards who use more modern methods.

 

We often go as a family to Provence in France in the Summer and they sell their fabulous Rosé from like petrol pump things in vineyards, you can bring any container for it you want and fill it with a hose from the wall and you pay per weight! They often have plastic large bottles with handles to use if you want and the first time we visited we were so snooty about it! Wine not in glass bottles omg! But all the local people were bring all manner of containers to fill up! Now we are always coming back to England with loads of plastic bottles of Rosé, it's truly amazing however it's contained 😂

 

Anyway I do buy anything tarot branded so these wine bottles might have seen me coming, if I saw it for sale I would buy it to try 😁