Every label we print sits on a cream paper stock. Slightly warm, slightly textured, substantial in the hand. We do not stock white paper. We will not order it for a custom run. Three short reasons, since the question comes up.
One: cream reads as aged
White paper reads as fresh from the print run. Cream paper reads as having sat in the cellar for a year before reaching the customer. The bottle, on day one, looks as if it has been waiting for the customer in a cellar, which is the impression most customers are unconsciously trying to create. Cream paper does this for free. White paper makes the customer fight uphill against the impression that the bottle was finished yesterday.
Two: foil reads warmer on cream
Antique gold foil, against white paper, reads as bright and metallic, closer to chrome than to gold. The same antique gold against cream paper reads as warm, soft, aged. The substrate decides how the foil registers. Cream is the substrate that lets the foil do what the customer wants it to do. We have run the comparison on the same artwork. The cream version reads as serious; the white version reads as a sample print.
Three: cream forgives
Small printing variations, slight color drift in the foil, slight register shifts in the deboss, the inevitable microscopic flaws of any physical print process, register much harder on white paper than on cream. White is a high-contrast environment. Cream is a forgiving one. The label looks finished on cream even when the print conditions were not quite perfect. The same label, on white, looks rougher than it is.
There is no aesthetic argument we have ever heard that holds up against these three. We stock cream. The customer can choose any cream we offer, and there are several. We do not offer white. We will not. The paper is the first decision; making the wrong one cannot be recovered downstream.