Innovative Wine Bottles Include Labels With Short Stories to Read While You Sip

While a traditional wine pairing typically couples a specific food with its red-or-white match, Reverse Innovation believes that wine is best served with a good book. The Milan-based brand and product design agency has teamed up with Matteo Correggia, an award-winning winery in the rolling hills of Roero, Italy, to create Librottiglia, a range of wines with a literary twist.

Composed of three wines—two reds and a white—the Librottiglia line is distinguished by its catchy title (a clever combination of the Italian words for “book” and “bottle”) and its clever packaging. With a clean, minimalist design, a colorful graphic, and information about the grape variety, year, and region of its contents, each bottle’s label appears ordinary. Tug at the twine that is tied around it, however, and you’ll discover that the “label” is actually a tiny book! A perfect pairing for each half-bottle (375 milliliters or about two-and-a-half glasses), the novellas offer a convenient way to relax as you sip.

Reverse Innovation commissioned three authors to produce the literary accompaniments. Each piece has been perfectly paired with a Matteo Correggia wine that captures its tone and embodies its feel: singer and writer Patrizia Laquidara’s tale, La Rana Nella Pancia (A Frog in the Belly), “fits the uncommon personality of red Anthos, a dry Brachetto”; Ti Amo. Dimenticami (I Love You. Forget Me) by Regina Nadaes Marques is as “intense” as its red Nebbiolo companion, and Danilo Zanelli’s humorous L’omicidio (Murder) shares the “fresh and light spirit” of Arneis, a crisp white wine.

Wine-loving bibliophiles can find the bookish bottles on the Librottiglia website. They’re currently only available in Italian, so be sure to brush up on your Romance languages first!