As a firm believer that the old adage "you can't judge a book by its cover" is complete horseshit, I'm pleased to see Rob Walker's latest The Designed Life series for Murketing.com. Walker explores the relationship between the aesthetics of wine packaging and the quality of the actual wine.

Bethany and I reguarly buy wine based on packaging, and have been batting close to 1,000 with this technique.

Two very basic rules of thumb: Good typography on the label = good wine. Brightly colored monkeys on the label = tastes like monkey piss.