20 years united by wine labeling
Vier Jahreszeiten winegrowers and cab

It is said that a successful partnership matures like good wine. Properly stored, these wines get the possibility to thrive in color, fruitiness and temperament and become even more complex in taste in the course of time - some of them for ten years, others even longer. The cooperation of the Vier Jahreszeiten winegrowers with cab has been lasting for more than two decades now. In the beginning, cab’s first hour printer Apollo had been in use. Today, cab’s printer model SQUIX 4 is successfully printing labels for more than 100,000 repackagings annually in the headquarters in Palatine Bad Dürkheim.

It is about quality

Names such as St. Laurent, Blauer Portugieser, Frühburgunder and Pinot Noir, Lemberger or Riesling make the hearts of a gourmet beat faster. The Vier Jahreszeiten winegrowers provide a lot of these. An annual productional volume of six million bottles is generated by two plants. 150 types of wine, sparkling wine or secco are offered in the in-house wine shop alone. Wine lovers have hard times choosing from a total range of more than 500 products. “We have been confirmed an outstanding wine quality by customers”, Walter Brahner says. The Managing Director considers quality not only limited to wine: “Primarily, customers must receive the product they have ordered. They have to be served correctly by us. In principle, labeling is the most important process at this.”

: Labels printed and rewound
The external rewinder accepts label rolls with 200 mm maximum outside diameter.

Cardboard boxes labeled for sparkling wine and secco

The SQUIX 4 printer serves for the labeling of repackagings. At this, labels are manually stuck to the yet unfolded bottle boxes by the employees. Amongst others, label data indicate the vintage, type of grape and alcoholic strength, as Cardboard boxes labeled for sparkling wine and secco well the name and origin of the bottler, added by a barcode and an ID number for traceability. The data printed on the label must be clearly readable and must withstand environmental conditions and liquids not only during storage, but also later on during transport. Thermal transfer, which is the method the SQUIX prints on a label, meets all these requirements. Labels printed in thermal transfer method have a comparatively long service life. An excellent contrast enables a high scan rate and thus favors barcode printing. In addition, the SQUIX 4 printer is highly performant: 105.7 mm maximum print width and print speeds of up to 300 mm/s are possible at 300 dpi printable resolution.

: Show me your inside!
Labels indicate what comes with the bottle boxes.

Useful device expansion

A rewinder, power-supplied by its own mains connection and positioned in front of the SQUIX, prevents the winegrowers from spending time with manually winding the printed labels for stock. The rewinder picks up large quantities of labels directly after printing. At this, the printed labels are led out of the printer to be wound directly onto the external rewinder. The electronic swing arm control ensures that the winding stays consistent and tight.

Grown together

More than 100,000 cardboard repackagings have to labeled by the Vier Jahreszeiten winegrowers each year. As regards flawless labeling, Mr. Brahner appreciates the successful, long-term cooperation with cab. He still remembers the first meeting: “More than 20 years ago, Mr. Bittighöfer came to us as the responsible cab consultant to introduce himself. He exactly hit the the point of our demands, which then had been the following: printing labels in optimized quantities, avoiding the costs for setting up printing plates, imprints resistant to smearing and scratching, pin sharp print images. This is how we got into business back then. The reliability of the devices, the friendly support and the very good services have not changed to this day.”

The alliance stands for 118 years of winegrowing tradition. Around Bad Dürkheim and its neighboring communities, a total wine area of 650 hectares is cultivated by the approximately 400 members. The wines have been awarded with numerous national and international prizes. By the way: The name of the alliance refers to the restaurant in which the first founding meeting took place. www.vj-wein.de