{"product_id":"antique-1920s-1930s-cuvee-speciale-french-wine-label-unique-design","title":"Antique 1920s-1930s French Wine Collarette Label 🍷 Cuvée Spéciale Crowned Heraldic Crest Lithograph NOS","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWhat Did Cuvée Spéciale Mean? 🍷 The Bottle Spoke First: CUVÉE SPECIALE\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 7\" x 3\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzPf-FAh_LY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eBefore a cork came out, the neck of a fine bottle had already said its piece. The French called that little curved band a \u003cem\u003ecollerette\u003c\/em\u003e, a small collar, and when the Champagne houses shaped their labeling tradition in the nineteenth century the collar was their nod to the scarves, lanyards and neck decorations people of the day loved to wear. Bottling machines have since made the collar a rarity. This one never met a bottle at all: a New Old Stock French wine collarette from the 1920s-1930s, lithographed in black, red and metallic gold, announcing CUVÉE SPECIALE twice, with a crowned shield of three red chevrons rising from the middle of the band.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🔎 What Is on It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShape:\u003c\/strong\u003e a curved band that arcs like a sickle, a shield-shaped tab rising at its center, and a round tab at the right-hand end\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWords:\u003c\/strong\u003e CUVÉE SPECIALE in bold black capitals across the band, and the same two words again in white capitals circling a red roundel on the end tab\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShield:\u003c\/strong\u003e a white field carrying three stacked red chevrons inside a red border, outlined in black\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCrown:\u003c\/strong\u003e a gold coronet sitting on top of the shield\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOrnament:\u003c\/strong\u003e gold scrolls curling out from both sides of the shield, and twin gold rules running the length of the band\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBack:\u003c\/strong\u003e plain paper, thin enough that the printing shows faintly through in reverse\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eUnprinted:\u003c\/strong\u003e no house, bottler, town or vintage appears anywhere on it\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📜 Cuvée: From the Vat to the Neck\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe word starts in the cellar. \u003cem\u003eCuvée\u003c\/em\u003e comes from \u003cem\u003ecuve\u003c\/em\u003e, the French word for a vat or tank, and on a label it means wine of a particular blend or batch. In Champagne it has a stricter sense still: the finest juice of a gentle pressing, the first 2,050 liters from 4,000 kilograms of grapes. Add \u003cem\u003espéciale\u003c\/em\u003e and the promise goes up a step. Like \u003cem\u003etête de cuvée\u003c\/em\u003e, \"cuvée spéciale\" is meant to signal a higher-quality selection set apart from a producer's everyday wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the words never did was carry the force of law. The term is largely unregulated, so the word on the label is a producer's own boast rather than a guarantee. With no house name printed anywhere on this collar, the boast is all it makes: this bottle is the special one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🛡️ Reading the Shield\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeraldry gave the label its authority. The chevron, the wide inverted V on a shield, takes its name from Old French \u003cem\u003echevron\u003c\/em\u003e, the mark so called because it looks like the rafters of a shallow roof. The word runs back through Vulgar Latin to Latin \u003cem\u003ecaper\u003c\/em\u003e, goat, and the likely link between goats and rafters is the animal's horns. Heraldic tradition reads the rafter-shaped chevron as a sign of protection and faithful service, and the old story goes that it was granted to those who had built churches or fortresses or carried out some notable enterprise. This shield stacks three of them in red on white, which heralds would describe in their old tongue as gules on argent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbove it sits a gold coronet. In France, coronets on a coat of arms were strictly regulated and used to show rank within the nobility, from duke and marquis down through count, viscount and baron. On a label with no family name, the crown and chevrons borrow that whole language of lineage to dress a bottle of wine, and the gold scrolls on either side finish the effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e⚖️ The Years France Wrote Its Wine Laws\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA collar like this was printed while France was still building the rules that govern its wine names today. The first French law determining viticultural designations of origin dates to 1 August 1905. On 6 May 1919 the Law for the Protection of the Place of Origin followed, specifying the region and commune where a given product must be made. On 30 July 1935, at the initiative of Joseph Capus, the Comité National des appellations d'origine was created by government representatives and the major winegrowers to run the new appellation d'origine contrôlée system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose laws were about \u003cem\u003ewhere\u003c\/em\u003e a wine came from. CUVÉE SPECIALE says nothing about place. It speaks the older language of the cellar and the blend, which is why a collar like this one could ride the neck of a bottle from any house that thought its wine deserved it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖨️ How Paper Came to Dress the Bottle\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWine labels as we know them needed two things to happen: glass bottles becoming the standard container for wine, and a cheap way to print color on paper. The second arrived when the Bavarian Alois Senefelder invented lithography in 1796, and it was carried into full color in 1837 with Godefroy Engelmann's chromolithography. French label printers sold ready-made designs from salesmen's sample books: generic wine and liqueur labels, each marked with a stock number and a price, waiting for a merchant's name to be added. The Champagne houses led the way in dressing their bottles, and the full outfit of body label, neck band and collar that became traditional there set the look a bottle of any quality was expected to wear. The Champagne houses are credited with being the first to dress their labels in gold, silver and bronze, and at the neck of a Champagne bottle the collerette often carried the house's name or its coat of arms. Veuve Clicquot's Yellow Label has marked that house's style since 1876. Collectors also tell that bottling hands fitted the collar last, as the finishing touch that crowned the dressed bottle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat outfit is what the machines ended. Standard Champagne bottles are now labeled at 900 to 8,000 an hour on automated lines, with hand labeling kept mostly for special prestige formats. A loose, never-used collar from the days of paper finery is the part of that world that did not get glued down and thrown away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🖼️ Living With It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFrame it on a dark mat so the curve of the band, the gold and the red shield stand out.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePair it with an antique body label, a corkscrew or an old wine map in a kitchen, dining room or cellar.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTuck it into a cellar book or wine journal as a keepsake.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGive it with a bottle of French wine to someone who loves wine, France, heraldry or old printing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e❓ Questions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWas it ever on a bottle?\u003c\/strong\u003e No. It is New Old Stock, a 1920s-1930s collar that was never applied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat does Cuvée Spéciale mean?\u003c\/strong\u003e A special blend or batch. \u003cem\u003eCuvée\u003c\/em\u003e comes from the vat, and \"spéciale\" marks a selection the producer set above its everyday wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich winery used this label?\u003c\/strong\u003e None is named. The collar prints only CUVÉE SPECIALE, the crowned shield and the gold ornament.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat is the round red tab?\u003c\/strong\u003e A roundel at the end of the band repeating CUVÉE SPECIALE in white letters, a second place for the words to be read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIs the coat of arms a real family's?\u003c\/strong\u003e No family, town or house is printed with it. The shield uses the classic heraldic chevron and a coronet to give the wine the look of noble credentials.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-qualite-superieure-french-wine-label-1920s-treasures\"\u003eAntique 1920s French Wine Label 🍷 Qualité Supérieure Gold \u0026amp; Orange 3-Star Collectible\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-st-benoit-liqueur-neck-label-orange-1920s-1930s-treasures\"\u003eAntique Liqueur St. Benoit 1920s - 1930s Bottle Neck Label 🏅 Orange Heraldic Crest DW Shield Ephemera\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-grande-fine-mont-dore-wine-neck-label-1920s-1930s-treasures\"\u003eAntique Belgian Wine Neck Label 🥃 Grande Fine Mont Doré Maison Desmet-Maertens 1920s - 1930s New Old Stock Ephemera\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40909085147301,"sku":"VAG-7075668394149","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.6373710723_llfr.jpg?v=1785355323","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1920s-1930s-cuvee-speciale-french-wine-label-unique-design","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}