Among the other Australians in the vanguard of the eye-catching label craze is Wayne Anderson, owner and winemaker of Killibinbin (from an Aboriginal word meaning “to shine”). “My old, plain, simple labels were getting lost on the shelves,” Anderson says. “It was time for a change, so I figured I might as well do something completely different, something that doesn’t look like a conventional wine label at all.” After he opted for shocking images that resemble horror-movie posters, with women screaming and a man being choked, business—and buzz—picked up. Sales in Australia doubled, and in the U.S. his wines sold twice as fast. Killibinbin went from producing 400 cases a year in 1997 to 5,000 cases currently.

Aussie winemaker Some Young Punks also went for the dramatic, choosing seedy pulp-paperback-cover–style images for its labels, depicting young women in various states of undress. The wines are called Quickie, Naked on Roller Skates, The Fire in Her Eyes, and Passion Has Red Lips. “We need you to see us,” its website explains, “and we don’t have lineage, or tithe—not even a family crest to take up the paper on the glass.”

Clark Smith has a day job at Vinovation, a wine-production consulting firm in Sonoma Valley, California, coaching 1,200 winemakers. He also crafts wines for two of his own labels, WineSmith and CheapSkate. He thinks packaging should tell consumers what to expect, ensure that they remember the wine, and endear the product to them. “We use whimsy,” he says. “CheapSkate—they’re gonna remember that. And the labels [convey] that you can get really high-quality wine that’s not famous for a cheap price.”