Seattle Trademark Lawyer

Brand names like "Fat Bastard" may be memorable, but they fail to delivery knowledge about the wine product itself. Wines with such popular and easily recognizable names may appeal to the lower end of the wine buying market that is not seeking geographic information, vintner information, or information about the characteristics of the wine itself. I doubt they appeal to the wine buyer who is interested in the quality and unique characteristics of the product.

I have avoided purchasing wines with names like "Fat Bastard" because they fail to inform the buyer of anything useful to know about the wine and seem to be capitalizing on the purely commercial and marketing aspects of selling wine. I would not likely be drinking wine socially with a "fat bastard," so why buy a wine named after one?

After all, if wine were a mere commidity product, what would be the joy of taking the time to learn, understand and appreciate all of the subtle differences that geography, blending, use of grapes, and vintner's style bring to the product?

I disagree, DJ. Very few wine "brand" names give you any useful information about the wine. In most cases, information about the geographic area a wine hails from is found elsewhere on the wine label, and usually consists of a combination of an AVA designation (or similar designation in a foreign county, such as the AOC in France) and sometimes a specific vineyard name. Of course, there are some brand names that include relevant geographic information. Stag's Leap comes to mind (from the Stag's Leap AVA in California). But most don't. Similarly, information about the wine's characteristics, such as the grape varieties included in the wine, are found elsewhere on the label.

I think Mike is right from a marketing perspective. Some of the more savvy wineries take the approach of giving a particular wine a memorable name (as opposed to relying on a unique producer name). For example, "Conundrum," which Mike cites above, is the proprietary name of a white wine made by the Caymus. Other examples are D'Arenberg's "Dead Arm" (from Australia), Antinori's "Tignanello" (Italy), and Cayuse's "Bionic Frog" (Washington State).

The most savvy have both a unique brand (producer) name, and unique names for each particular wine they produce. Take, for example, the California winery Sine Qua Non. Certainly a memorable brand name. On top of that, Sine Qua Non has given a different proprietary name to every wine it has produced, going so far as to not keep the same name from vintage to vintage. It has amassed a memorable collection of wine names - "Queen of Spades," Twisted and Bent," "The Complicator," "Midnight Oil," and "Poker Face," to name a few. And the wine is pretty damn good, too!