On Naming Wine

Did you ever wonder how the name of your favorite wine was chosen? Sure the Lafite's and the Dom's are named after the vineyard - that's simple. But what about the growing trend of schticky marketing of wine. It may not have started with Aussie wine Yellowtail . . . but they certainly fanned the flames of the idea. Crusing through your local wine shop these days you'll see all kinds of crazy names. From Red Truck and Little Penguin to Bad Habit and Cat Pee - vintners are going above and beyond the call of duty to draw consumers eyes to their bottles.

The formula that seems to work is quirky name + quirky label = sales. This rant was sparked by an interesting article published recently in The St. Helena Star that spends a lot of time examining the wine-branding process and interviews some of the more succesful players. If you're looking for a little insight into how some of the more outrageous wine images were chosen, you should definitely check it out.