Paper 1: Wine Label

Guiding Question: How does language work in this text to achieve a range of
different purposes?

This text, a wine label, is a complex, multivocal text that has a range of, sometimes
competing, intended purposes and ideal readers. The text is apparently sub-divided
into three separate sections, and each of these sections has a different function and
ideal narratee. The top section of the text seems to have the general function of
persuading readers that consuming wine has positive benefits that connects the
drinking of wine to ideas of sophistication and refinement. The bottom (right) section
of the text seems to have the function of informing the ideal reader, warning of
potential dangers associated with consumption of wine. The bottom (left) section of
the text is a barcode. As such, it is an informative text intended to be read by an
electronic scanner, and is used in different parts of the inventory management
process.

Given general literacy practices in English – broadly speaking, of reading top to

bottom and left to right – it is unsurprising that the persuasive text precedes other
parts of the text and is given more space to, in effect, dominate the label. In this part
of the text, the ideal reader seems to be positioned as a consumer who has the
freedom to exercise choice. This idea is exploited by the writer(s) of the label who
recognise that readers of the text are potential customers. That is, within a system of
exchange, it is necessary that some readers of the text are persuaded to buy the
wine. It is, after all, only possible for the wine’s manufacturers to make a profit if it is
bought in sufficient quantity.

The top part of the label does not, of course, foreground monetary exchange or a
profit motive. Instead, the text works to persuade readers through establishing a
sense that the consumption of wine is associated with class and elegance. The wine
is called ‘Montpellier’. It is possible that the wine is manufactured in this French
town1. This need not, however, be the case; it is equally possible that the wine is
manufactured elsewhere, but that readers of the text are asked to draw on particular
cultural associations that connect the denotative idea of France to wider connotative
meanings associated with an elegant, relaxed lifestyle. Indeed, readers are told that
wine ‘is a temperate, civilized, romantic mealtime beverage’. This, the first of two
tricolons, reinforces the connection between the consumption of wine and the good
life. The declarative and rhetorical nature of the claim positions readers to accept this
view. It is important that this good life is understood by readers to have existed for a
long time. Thus, readers are told that ‘wine has been with us since the beginning of

1
The wine was actually manufactured and sold in California, USA. This information was not made
available to the writer of this response.

© David McIntyre, InThinking

http://www.thinkib.net/englishalanglit 1
civilisation’. Readers may not question what exactly constitutes ‘civilisation’ or when
it can be said to have begun, but it is enough to make the connection between the
consumption of wine and the incipiency of civilisation. It is significant that wine
consumption is embedded into a seemingly enduring cultural tradition. Potential
consumers are told that wine is ‘an integral part of our families’ culture, heritage, and
gracious way of life’. Wine, it is argued, is essential, connecting its manufacture and
consumption to values associated with family, ancestry, and extending back many
generations. The historical sense that wine is embedded in the very fabric of civilized
life is established in the repetition of the present perfect tense. Seen in the repetition
of ‘wine has been’, a connection is made between past and present consumption of
wine, and readers are encouraged to continue the tradition into the future through
their own purchase and consumption of ‘Montpellier’. The modality throughout this
top section of text is unremittingly unmarked and high, allowing little latitude for
readers to challenge the sense that wine may be anything other than a drink
associated with refinement. And, this sense of refinement is confirmed in the
endorsement of wine ‘praised for centuries by statesmen, philosophers, poets and
scholars. Arguably hyperbolic, this claim establishes a connection between the
consumption of wine, status, and creativity. Readers are told that the wine is ‘100%
Merlot’. Although this presumably identifies the purity of the grape, there is also a
connotation of excellence; 100% cannot be bettered.

The section of written text in the bottom right of the label is significantly different from
the persuasive text that precedes it. Readers seem to be positioned as citizens with
rights. There is an abrupt change of purpose, clearly signalled by the bolded
‘Government Warning’. Readers, in this section, are informed of the potential harm
that alcohol can induce. Like the more persuasive text, the modality remains (mostly)
high. However, the lexis no longer suggests that wine is a drink that occasions the
good life. The repetition of ‘wine’ and lexical substitution of ‘romantic mealtime
beverage’ in the top section of text, is replaced by ‘alcoholic beverages’ in the bottom
section of text. A sense of ethos is established with the inclusion of the apparently
important accessed voice of ‘the Surgeon General’. The third person, ‘women’,
establishes a sense of formality and social distance, and the language of cause and
effect is employed to argue that they ‘should not drink alcoholic beverages during
pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects’. While both the top and bottom
sections of text employ synthetic personalization – expressed in ‘us’ in the top
section, and ‘your’ in the bottom section – the technical argot (e.g. ‘health problems’,
‘birth defects’, ‘contains sulphites’) of the bottom section of text seems more
distancing.

The different purposes of the top and bottom sections of written text is also revealed
paralinguistically. That is, the font in the persuasive text at top establishes a relaxed
quality that corresponds to the written text. There is, in this part of the text,

© David McIntyre, InThinking

http://www.thinkib.net/englishalanglit 2
considerable white background relative to the (black) written text, printed in a font
that suggests informality. Although the name of the wine – ‘Montpellier’ – is written in
a larger text and boldly underscored to prosodically ‘shout out’ to the potential
reader/buyer, it remains in a font that connotes casual ease. The persuasive text at
the top of the text is in stark contrast to the informational warning at the bottom of the
text. Here, the ‘Government Warning’ is bolded, reinforcing the authoritative advice.
Listing, ‘(1)’ and ‘(2)’, seemingly confirms the sense of expert advice being given.
And, unlike the persuasive text, the font, darker and in all caps, emphasizes the
sense that this text serves to warn readers. Of course, in contrast to the persuasive
text, there is less background in this text, making it more challenging to read. Given
that it is situated at the bottom of the page, it can be argued that it is less likely to be
read, with potential readers more likely to read the persuasive text and, the
manufacturers may hope, more likely to purchase the wine.

The inclusion of a barcode further complicates this many-voiced text. Like the
warning, it has an informational purpose, although the information has more to do
with transactional and logistical detail. Read initially by electronic scanning devices, it
is likely to be ‘read’ many times throughout the life of the bottle from manufacture to
sale. What is actually communicates is obfuscated from real human readers, and
specifically potential consumers, who are, in any case, culturally conditioned to
ignore the barcode. The complexity of the text seems to arise from the different,
quite opposite, purposes it has. Whether or not readers actually assume their ideal
reader role is difficult to tell. For example, those who have experience of alcoholism,
directly or indirectly, may eschew the incitement to join the good life. In the
experience of such readers, the consumption of wine may have little that connects it
to ‘the gracious way of life’. Equally, those who read the warning text may choose to
reject its claims, possibly because they do not regard wine as potentially harmful, or
because they are suspicious of any authoritative body that seeks to influence and
control their lives.

© David McIntyre, InThinking

http://www.thinkib.net/englishalanglit 3