One early California advocate of combining wine and fun is Napa’s Frog’s Leap winery, which has been selling humor and seriously good wine since its founding in 1975. The name is an inside joke—the original property was a commercial frog farm—combined with a takeoff on the famous Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. The winery’s official motto: “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.”
Today, many more California wine names wink, especially for natural wines such as the Hornswoggle Stay-in-Bed Red by J. Brix, billed as a blend of red varieties that “play extra deliciously together.”
But the winemaker who elevated zany names for fine wine to an art is the ever-inventive Australian, Chester Osborn of D’Arenberg, noted for his infamous collection of loud shirts, boisterous party animal persona, and 70 lush, rich reds and whites that range from $15 a bottle to $100 a bottle. Such names as his the Money Spider, the Vociferate Dipsomaniac, and the Cenosilicaphobic Cat always make me smile. (Cenosilicaphobic means “one who is afraid of an empty glass.”) All the wines are bold, savory, vibrant, smooth-textured, and delicious, which is why d’Arenberg picked up the Winery of the Year award at last year’s London Wine Competition.
Australia’s goofy humor spawned an era of provocative labels such as Passion has Red Lips, which bears a pulp fiction-style label. Natural winemakers are taking it one step further with outré names like Astro Bunny. In comparison, such French examples as Tout Bu or Not Tout Bu or Bordeaux’s Bad Boy seem almost literary.
Clearly, wine names such as Where’s Linus?, Mushroom Panda, and Her Majesty’s Secret Service show there’s a new spirit of fun among winemakers experimenting everywhere, along with a desire to make serious wine without taking themselves too seriously.
Note to self: Maybe it’s time for drinkers to do the same.
Here are 10 goofy bottles whose wine inside definitely won’t disappoint.
2019 Fairview’s Goats do Roam Red ($9)
The name of this solid, spicy-fruity everyday Rhône-style blend from South Africa is a riff on “Côtes-du-Rhône.” The French objected, but the winery insisted it came from its own goat herd accidentally escaping into the vineyard.
2018 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Volant Cuvee Oumuamua ($20)
This spicy, savory Rhône blend’s name is a witty nod to a decree passed in Châteauneuf-du-Pape forbidding UFOs (nicknamed flying cigars in France) from landing in vineyards. (That looks prescient now that NASA is investigating UFOs.)
2019 Domaine du Possible Tout Bu or Not Tout Bu ($28)
Bright and tart, this certified organic, chillable red with lavender and herb aromas comes from Roussillon, in the south of France. All the winery’s labels are heavy on puns.