St. Michaels Winery
Home of the Gollywobbler

Paul Vigna from Pennsylvania wrote a great post for pennlive.com  recently, What’s in a name? The Story behind Gollywobbler Braveheart and others. In addition, he wrote about questions and answers with Michael Kaiser of WineAmerica about wine names.

In his blog Vigna looks at wineries from eight wineries in Pennsylvania and Maryland and the unusual names they have chosen for wines. For instance at St. Michaels Winery in Maryland a wine is named Gollywobbler while at Orchid Cellar Meadery also in Maryland they produce a mead with the name Lumberjack. Read Vigna’s article to discover why some wines have unusual names such as Russian Kiss, Tears of Gettysburg, Zafferano, Braveheart and Detante.

In his Q&A with Michael Kaiser from WineAmerica  Vigna posed questions about TTB requirements for wine labels. In his post, On fanciful wine names and why the TTB rejects some he asked some general questions about wine names but also asked about the criteria used to approve or reject a name or label. Kaiser responded with some of the things that the TTB looks for on a wine label including alcohol content, brand name and class/type of wine. Most interesting is the list of reasons why a name might be rejected which includes “Anything implying health benefits” and “Anything with a government stamp or seal.” Read his blog to discover more reasons why a wine name might be rejected.

If you enjoy wine, you are likely to enjoy Paul Vigna’s blogs about wine names.

Cheers,
Kathy