Avery Dennison has found success with its new Aqua Opaque Portfolio. The technology is designed for wine labels, keeping them white even under wet conditions. The company says that this product line “resists the impact of moisture absorption and greying effect to the label for at least two hours.” This provides benefits in several areas in the value chain, from the wine producer to customers using a chilling cabinet.

Avery Dennison has noticed an increased use in uncoated facestocks in the wine industry. According to Stephanie D’Cruz, associate product manager, Select Solutions, Avery Dennison, the technology is utilized to give the wine bottle a premium look.

“When I walk up and down the wine aisle, most of the labels are not glossy,” says D’Cruz. “They’re actually uncoated and wine owners really like the fact that they look like matte labels.

The benefit of the Aqua Opaque Portfolio comes in the form of an ice bucket challenge. When uncoated papers are placed into ice buckets they turn grey, losing color and opacity. This is a stark contrast from coated papers. Aqua Opaque technology allows the labels to stay white in these wet conditions.

A recent Mind Insights study, conducted by an Avery Dennison European counterpart, explored how many visual factors in wine packaging can impact consumers’ spontaneous perceptions of the product/brand. “They actually thought they were having a higher quality of wine from a premier brand just because the label didn’t change colors in the ice bucket,” explains D’Cruz. “The grey labels have a lower perceived value to the consumers.”

Avery Dennison offers a number of adhesives that are commonly used in the wine portfolio. D’Cruz says that Aqua Opaque is the company’s most aggressive, long-term adhesive. “It has the benefit of short-term repositionability for 15 minutes. To have 15 minutes to reapply the label and not have to scrap it is a big deal. It also has low ooze, meaning the glue won’t get everywhere. Those are some of the benefits that stand out from the other adhesives in our portfolio, as well.”

The Aqua Opaque adhesive can be combined with any facestock in the company’s wine portfolio. Even though the product was originally developed for wines, the possibility could extend to other beverages like beers. Right now, however, the product is geared more toward wines because craft beer bottle are taking advantage of film labeling.

Thus far, Aqua Opaque has received positive feedback from customers. “We are in development with a customer of ours, and they’re seeing the improvement in wet opacity and dry opacity,” says D’Cruz. “At the Wine Show, it was something that really intrigued visitors, and they’re looking forward to trying it out and seeing it perform under their applications.”

According to Avery Dennison, Aqua Opaque technology sets the company apart in this market. “The greying label is a common problem, and we’re currently working on benchmarking our data to the competition’s to say that our data outperforms theirs.”