Way before the Prius and the Civic Hybrid, the original hybrid was Pink Champale. We call it a hybrid because it looks a lot like Champagne (sort of) — but it’s really beer. In tiny print, the label says it is a Malt Beverage with Natural Flavors and Artificial Color. Champale has certainly stood the test of time; the above approval is from this year and Gono.com has an excellent collection of Champale ads going all the way back to 1960. The above ad is from about 1978, and the 1962 ad refers directly to Champagne. Smirnoff Ice is a much later example of the increasingly common trend toward hybrids (it has a malt beverage base but a hugely famous spirits brand name). The beer versus wine versus spirits categorization is a critically important part of TTB’s role, because of a dramatically different excise tax on each category. In many cases (such as beers loaded up with flavors) it is very difficult to assign the product to the most appropriate category.

We don’t know much about Miranda Lambert, but we liked the looks of these labels. The graphic designer did a nice job of making them visually interesting, in our opinion. These Texas table wines would not be nearly as tantalizing without this impressive culmination of fonts, word choices, and graphics. This article says the singer is actively involved in running the winery, and it shows. She’s pretty busy for a 24 year old, with a winery and various Grammy Award nominations, and this e-commerce site for wines. She is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year and performing on the CMA Awards in two days on ABC. On the technical side, the Kerosene COLA shows that TTB requires a bit more space around the Government Warning.

Fred Franzia likes to say he can make good wine from grapes grown just about anywhere. These two labels tend to show he could also make wine from just about anything. This tomato wine seems to decide the age-old question of whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. TTB classified it as a “table fruit wine” and the winery itself says it’s made with “only the finest fruits available … ” Along the same lines, here is an avocado wine, vinted and bottled in Florida. TTB classified it as a “table fruit wine.”

A number of cues suggest the winter holidays are upon us: shorter days and colder weather, stores decorated with Santas and snowflakes before Thanksgiving, and seasonal winter beers. Here are three examples of winter beer labels, including the new Anchor seasonal label, which changes yearly. Amongst seasonal beers, winter beer appears to be the most prevalent, with over 100 TTB label approvals in 2008 alone. See three recent label approvals here:  Anchor Brewing Merry Christmas, Flying Dog K-9 Cruiser, and Father John’s Winter Ale.