What's your prefered method for labels?

Unfortunately I guess I'm the cheapskate in the group...... I use painter masking tape and a sharpie.... Tacky but does the job for me....

Bob J, I often wind up giving my mead as gifts, sometimes at large events with several hundred people who's only experience with me might be that one weekend and that bottle they take home. Such as, at the last event I went to, my boyfriend had brought the spear pieces I had bought him for Christmas because someone we knew had said they would take it home and use their wood working tools to put it together. That person never showed up, but someone from Wichita we had never met before actually whittled the wooden shaft to the correct size with a pocket knife, and then made a pin with pliers and a really thick nail. It took several hours to do it by hand like that (we were taking 2 foot off the shaft before even attaching the head and butt pieces) and I thanked him with a bottle of my mead.

I'm glad I take the time to make my labels pretty because it leaves a lasting impression of where that bottle came from, who I am, and it makes the gift look better. If I were only taking bottles around with me to pour into cups, or just drinking them at home, I might do the sharpie label method. But other people see my bottles and receive them as presents.

I guess think of it as wrapping paper? ;D The present is the mead, but the outside needs to look pretty too or people kind of look at you funny.

Sometimes the presentation is important. Way back in the olden days (1999) my girlfriend at the time hosted a Halloween Party and all the beer was my homebrew and a lot of the liquor was made by me as well. She was still in college at the time so the Bud Light crowd was in attendance so not only did I label the bottles I came up with a laminated menu that explained the 12 or so types of beer, which was the appropriate glass to use for which type of beer and even showed how to pour a traditional German Hefeweizen. I'm a bit of a beer snob, but like I said sometime the presentation is important.

Thanks guys..... I guess it just depends on the situation.... Haven't thought about giving as gifts but if I did I would certainly want a nice label.....

Most of my meads/melomels either go to close family or are used when we have folks over....