Wine from Tarara Winery

[Mike Buckley]

Tarara Winery is located in northern Virginia less than an hour's drive from my home. They make a favorite wine of mine, a white wine blended typically with several grape species. The primary species is Rkatsiteli, a grape that originated in eastern Europe's Georgia about 3000 BC. Though not a well-known species, it's grown there and in other eastern European countries today as well as the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Though Virginia's rapidly growing wine industry seems to be most highly regarded for its Viognier, I've noticed recently that apparently more and more wineries are making wine from Rkatsiteli grapes. Based on this wine made by Tarara, I can easily imagine Virginia's wine industry carving out a niche for itself based on the Rkatsiteli grapes.

Notice that unlike most screw caps, the exterior of this one is perfectly smooth.

Setup
The tabletop is textured, partially translucent paper on top of black presentation paper that shows through the translucent areas of the top layer of paper. A medium continuous-light lamp on the right side is flagged to prevent direct reflections from occurring in the bottle and to darken certain areas of the tabletop. A small continuous-light lamp on the left is shining through white presentation paper to add just the right amount of light. A polarizer was used to eliminate most of the glare in the textured areas of the tabletop.

[Shadowman]

Nice composition and capture.

[IzzieK]

Looks like this was done after you got drunk...bu you forgot to put the car keys beside it... j/k...one of your most dramatic shots so far as I can remember. I like it...

[NorthernFocus]

Looks like this was done after you got drunk...bu you forgot to put the car keys beside it... j/k...one of your most dramatic shots so far as I can remember. I like it...

No drops on the floor either so clearly you finished the bottle before dropping it

I agree, a very dramatic shot.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, guys!

At the risk of thoroughly disappointing Izzie and Dan, the true story is actually very mundane. There was about one glass of wine in the bottle, so I temporarily poured the wine into a glass before photographing the bottle. I then returned the wine to the bottle and of course closed it with the screw cap.

[bnnrcn]

I think this is an image for depressed people, very dramatic and it can be told some stories about it I think, I might be the only one who is seeing some reds on the upper right side of the frame

PS.They might be some reflections from the table top but just guessing really.

[Shadowman]

I think this is an image for depressed people, very dramatic and it can be told some stories about it I think, I might be the only one who is seeing some reds on the upper right side of the frame

PS.They might be some reflections from the table top but just guessing really.

Darn it, you made me see the reds also.

[TonyW]

This is simple but nice. The texture of the table top goes well with the smoothness of the glass. I don't mind the red.

I have had a few bottles of wine with that type of top. Our winemakers don't seem to be as adventurous with grape type.

[Mike Buckley]

Continued thanks to everyone!

Some of you are discussing the red tones being reflected in the wine bottle. There are also some yellow and green tones.

I always photograph glass in an environment that allows no unwanted reflections. That almost always means in my case photographing it within essentially a black tent. This time I left one fabric wall of my tent open because I liked the reflections. That's partly because there was nothing in the scene being photographed that implied for me that the bottle was in an environment that would not create reflections.

I don't know the specific sources of the reflections other than to mention that there is a wall of shelving just a few feet away from the bottle that is covered from floor to ceiling with tons of small items and that I was next to that wall wearing a red shirt.

Another reason I felt comfortable leaving the fabric wall of my tent open is that my new wireless tethered system allows me to review the image on an 11" screen rather than my camera's LCD. I saw the reflected colors in the bottle before releasing the shutter, liked them, and left the fabric wall open despite that it would have taken only about 15 seconds to very easily close it.