Name That Brand: Now That's an Odd Bird

James,

It's certainly not an easy decision to come up with a namer - that's for sure! It's kind of like coming up with names for your kids . . . but like coming up with a name for your third born, not your first (which, in my case, was chosen 10 years prior to having her!).

The challenge for me was to come up with a name that not only I was happy with, but that my wife was as well . . . not always an easy task! Luckily, we finally agreed on something that really seems to work for us!

Curious to hear what others have to say.

Cheers and happy tasting!

Larry Schaffer

tercero wines

In Virginia there is Tarara Winery. Tarara is Ararat backwards as in Mount Ararat because the year the owners bought the farm there was a flood off the Potomac and the farm overlooks Sugarloaf Mountain. One of the children said that Sugarloaf reminded them of Mount Ararat and the great flood and the ark should come. Anyway, the winery is not Tarara.

JJ, I'm part of a Crushpad group as well. The group was together recently in New York and we selected our wine label and name. Of course we consumed a little Shafer One Point Five to get the creative juices flowing. Our name? "First Crush". I like our name a lot better than Salamander.

We were lucky in that my wife's last name, Match, also turned out to be a catchy brand name. It ended up sounding much better, in my opinion, than Match Sloan which was our first choice. The folks across the Valley probably would not have appreciated that anyway. Vineyard naming was fun as each has a story and as one of the WS bloggers once pointed out: stories personalize the wine for the customer.

Randy Sloan
Match Vineyards

My son in law, Jim McMahon, came up with the name ATHAIR, which is Gaelic for FATHER as our winery name. It is on our Russian River Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Jim wanted to honor his late father, step father and father in law. Our dilemma was to come up with a moniker that said more than McMahon or Keith. Our motto is to pay tribute to the powerful influence that all of our father's have had in preparing us for life's journey. Raise your glass in a toast to your father!Tom KeithAthair Wines, Inc.

This is the tasting note for the 2005 Mad Hatter, not 2004 (which appeared in WS's Insider June 25, 2008 issue). Mad Hatter is affiliated with Dancing Hares, but is its own label.

Jim, couldn't resist chiming in.. if folks are stumbling over Phifer Pavitt, they can remember us by the name of our (one) wine, 'Date Night'.

In today¿s blog you bring up the wine called Orogeny. You¿re not alone wondering about the decision to go with this name. Coming up with a new compelling name is difficult; we spent several months brainstorming. Chalone Wine Group had historically used place names for our brands (Chalone Vineyard, Edna Valley Vineyard), we wanted to continue that tradition when choosing a name for our new Pinot Noir. After exhausting all of the possibilities we could come up with for the Russian River area, and after numerous rejections from the U.S Trademarks office, we decided to look at geologic words. Many of the popular names were already taken (Alluvial, Talus,). My husband is a geologist and I had memory of a geologic term he used once. When Orogeny was launched, Pinot was on the rise. Numerous articles described it as sensual, finicky and mysterious. When I got to the ¿Os¿ in the geological glossary I saw "orogeny." That's it, the word I heard my husband use. The definition read "the process of mountain building." Russian River area is surrounded by mountains and the word orogeny had a provocative sound, which suited Pinot Noir's sensuous, mysterious style. It's also a great California word, our entire landscape is formed by orogenic episodes (earthquakes, subductions).First there were some giggles about the name, but over time people have come to embrace it and its meaning. I do meet people who don't know how to pronounce it but they are never afraid to try or ask how it is pronounced. They also ask the meaning of the word (except for the many geologists who love to tell me the meaning). There are jokes about orogeny's resemblance to another provocative word. Consumers really have fun with this and I believe it helps them remember the wine. The great thing about all of this is that the wine is really good. Once someone tastes it they usually become loyal fans of Orogeny wines and we've had great success with it since the launch in 2002, in spite of its unusual name.