San Francisco-based wine merchant Draper & Esquin Wine & Spirits (D&E) is refining quick-turnaround printing technology to become a virtual vintner. Purchasing overage production that area and international wine grape growers cannot sell under their own labels, D&E is turning the wines it blends and bottles into limited-edition offerings under its own, custom and private-label brands.

Rather than trying to buy outside-printed, color labels in runs as small as 1,000 at "horrendously expensive costs," in the words of president Barbara Fortini Medwadowski, D&E brought in a benchtop VP2020 produced by VIPColor Technologies (www.vipcolor.com). "I had already gotten bids from outside printers to print 1,000 labels," Medwadowski recalls. "If the wine doesn't sell, the label printing becomes a sunk cost." Printing some commemorative labels on the new machine gave the merchant a return on investment, she says. "And the quality is incredible," Medwadowski adds. The VP2020 offers up to 6003600-dpi print resolution and runs at 0.77 ips with a label up to 6.15 in. wide.

VIPColor Technologies, 800/404-3185. www.vipcolor.com