Wine Labels Are Bullshit

Wine packing the shelves at Petaluma Market – Buzz Bishop

If wine tasting is bullshit, then it follows the naming of wines has to be full of it too.

Marketing. It’s all about marketing. I’ve said before how the design of a wine label will influence our eyes before our tongues even get a taste. Now the naming of wines is messing with our brains as we walk the aisles.

Check out the names of a few wines I spotted on the shelves of wine retailers in Napa and Sonoma, you’d think TS Elliot was involved in the creation of some of these Rum Tum Tuggers. While some of the best wines in the world graced the shelves, sitting alongside the likes of Monogamy, Promisqous, Purple Cowboy, Middle Sister, Wandering Grape, Evil, Poizon and Merlot Over And Play Dead.

None of them carry the prestige or elegance of the grand houses of Bordeaux or the stars of Napa, but they do carry that microbrew counter culture cache that has become popular.

It’s a tiny little middle finger at the wine industry proving what’s on the outside matters just as much as what’s on the inside.

Yes, the naming of wines, like wine tasting, is bullshit.

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Tags: wine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 11:03 am and is filed under wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.