Naming blinded bottles
Posted: 11:02 Thu 05 Jun 2014
How should blinded bottles be named?
At the 1958 Horizontal on 3rd June 2014 the blinded bottles were named with lower-case Greek letters. Some people seemed lightly confused, perhaps not helped by how similar are the sounds of some of their names in English (e.g., beta, zeta, eta).
So how should blinded bottles be named? There are several possibilities.
• Upper-case Roman letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, …
But naming a mystery shipper “D” or “F” or “G” suggests something that might not be true.
• Lower-case Roman letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, …
For example, these were used at the 1960-1963 Double Horizontal on 23rd April 2014, which I didn’t attend. Being lower case lessens the false-suggestion problem, though the solution isn’t elegant on the eye (too much variation in vertical size of letter: compare “a” “b” and “f”).
• Lower-case Greek letters: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, …
As discussed above, these seem to confuse.
• Upper-case Greek letters: Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, …
These are worse than lower-case Greeks, as they falsely suggest (“Β” is Beta not Burmester), while still having the same confusion as the lower-case Greeks.
• Arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, …
For single-digit names, I don’t mind this. But naming a faded old wine “12” suggests something that might not be true.
• Lower-case Roman numbers: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, …
This is not falsely suggestive, and widely understood. Even “xii” doesn’t falsely suggest a particular pre-WW1 vintage. The variation in width (“i” versus “viii”) will force the “i” to look rather small in its circle, but we can live with that.
• Upper-case Roman numbers: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, …
More elegant to typeset than the lower-case Roman numbers, and more gravitas. “I” is unlikely to be confused with Infantado; “V” might be confused with Vesuvio (especially adjacent to “IV” and “VI”); and “X” isn’t a problem. Not bad.
• Mathematics, Punctuation and Dingbat-type characters: ×, ÷, +, -, $, £, €, ¥, #, ⊕, ⊗, ⊙, †, ‡, ¶, §, ©, ®, ♣, ♦, ♥, ♠, ★, ☆, ✪, ▶, ▲, …
If there is one spare circle, I sometimes name it “+” or “†”, and a second might be named “++” or “‡”. But as names for a dozen holes this is ugly, not possible in many typefaces, and also has naming problems. E.g., would a non-native speaker of English know “¶” as a “Pilcrow”, let alone the joys of “⊕” and “⊗” and “⊙”? No, thought not. Further, the characters differ greatly in weight: some large and full of dark ink, others in the same typeface at the same size are smaller and whiter. Yuck.
So, having thought this through by writing it out, I still like the lower case Greeks (α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω), but also like Roman numbers, upper or lower case I’m not sure.
Others’ preferences?
Some examples:
Edit:
The Decision
Example PDF, and the first two pages thereof:
On the glasses pages, the Titles are aggressively kerned, and hence also on pre-pour and sticky-label pages, but not on tasting-note, decanting-note, nor cork-display pages. The Circlearrays are in English, German and Portuguese: obviously this would vary according to the first languages of those attending.
At the 1958 Horizontal on 3rd June 2014 the blinded bottles were named with lower-case Greek letters. Some people seemed lightly confused, perhaps not helped by how similar are the sounds of some of their names in English (e.g., beta, zeta, eta).
So how should blinded bottles be named? There are several possibilities.
• Upper-case Roman letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, …
But naming a mystery shipper “D” or “F” or “G” suggests something that might not be true.
• Lower-case Roman letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, …
For example, these were used at the 1960-1963 Double Horizontal on 23rd April 2014, which I didn’t attend. Being lower case lessens the false-suggestion problem, though the solution isn’t elegant on the eye (too much variation in vertical size of letter: compare “a” “b” and “f”).
• Lower-case Greek letters: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, …
As discussed above, these seem to confuse.
• Upper-case Greek letters: Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, …
These are worse than lower-case Greeks, as they falsely suggest (“Β” is Beta not Burmester), while still having the same confusion as the lower-case Greeks.
• Arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, …
For single-digit names, I don’t mind this. But naming a faded old wine “12” suggests something that might not be true.
• Lower-case Roman numbers: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, …
This is not falsely suggestive, and widely understood. Even “xii” doesn’t falsely suggest a particular pre-WW1 vintage. The variation in width (“i” versus “viii”) will force the “i” to look rather small in its circle, but we can live with that.
• Upper-case Roman numbers: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, …
More elegant to typeset than the lower-case Roman numbers, and more gravitas. “I” is unlikely to be confused with Infantado; “V” might be confused with Vesuvio (especially adjacent to “IV” and “VI”); and “X” isn’t a problem. Not bad.
• Mathematics, Punctuation and Dingbat-type characters: ×, ÷, +, -, $, £, €, ¥, #, ⊕, ⊗, ⊙, †, ‡, ¶, §, ©, ®, ♣, ♦, ♥, ♠, ★, ☆, ✪, ▶, ▲, …
If there is one spare circle, I sometimes name it “+” or “†”, and a second might be named “++” or “‡”. But as names for a dozen holes this is ugly, not possible in many typefaces, and also has naming problems. E.g., would a non-native speaker of English know “¶” as a “Pilcrow”, let alone the joys of “⊕” and “⊗” and “⊙”? No, thought not. Further, the characters differ greatly in weight: some large and full of dark ink, others in the same typeface at the same size are smaller and whiter. Yuck.
So, having thought this through by writing it out, I still like the lower case Greeks (α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω), but also like Roman numbers, upper or lower case I’m not sure.
Others’ preferences?
Some examples:
Edit:
The Decision
Example PDF, and the first two pages thereof:
On the glasses pages, the Titles are aggressively kerned, and hence also on pre-pour and sticky-label pages, but not on tasting-note, decanting-note, nor cork-display pages. The Circlearrays are in English, German and Portuguese: obviously this would vary according to the first languages of those attending.