V–A–C Sreda online magazine presents a special New Year’s issue dedicated to wine studies produced in collaboration with a participant in the GES-2 House of Culture grant programme. In this issue, we publish wine labels designed by the Soviet breeder and artist Alexander Potapenko.

In Potapenko’s life, wine was not only an object of scientific research, but also a form of artistic expression. A gifted graphic artist, he designed labels for most of the wines produced at the Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking in Novocherkassk. Each label features an emblem created by the artist: a grapevine sprouting through snow and entwining a birch tree. Potapenko’s works are not only distinctive artifacts of Soviet graphic design, but also a collection of encoded narratives in which winemaking, the cultural context of the era, and episodes from the artist’s own biography are intricately interwoven.