Call Me a Cab

 Call me a Cab.....Cabernet , that is. What a delightful little pun that I recently ran across when planning an upcoming trip to Door County, Wisconsin. This terrific little pun is on a label of wine found at Heather Ridge Winery in Door County. I almost always like Cabernet Sauvignon, so it's a sure bet that Hubby and I will make a stop there.  Yeah, you can call it just creative marketing.... but it works on me anyway. I'm still laughing about it. (and writing about it!) And it makes me want to go check it out. I won't be a bit surprised if I bring home a bottle.

It made me realize that not only do (some) wine drinkers, and vintners, have a great sense of humor, maybe after a glass or two, but there is a whole culture around the hobby of wine drinking.  I love a good glass of wine not only for the taste, but also for the amazing sense of calm it brings to me.

When I began drinking wine, illegally as a teenager....I would partake in the varietals of Boone's Farm wine. Remember Boone's Farm?! Egad! They produced Boone's Farm Apple then when they came out with Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill we thought we were in 7th Heaven. It was sweet and basically tasted like pop, but we got drunk. And I guess basically that was the goal. Good Times.

Yet, all of our tastes change when we get older, thank goodness.  I am not trying to sound like a "wine snob".... on the contrary.  I have reached the point where I enjoy wine for the taste and fully realize that everyone has different tastes.  Drink what makes you happy. For me it is the drier reds and the crisp whites like Pinot Grigio.  Yet, whatever your preference, one thing that brings all wine drinkers together is the paraphernalia surrounding the hobby. Fancy glasses, funny kitchen wall plaques, ornate bottle stoppers....well, you get the idea.... the list goes on and on.  I have a nice collection of glasses, but am always on the look-out for an additional "souvenir" one.

Whenever I visit a winery, the sampling of the wine itself of course is the highlight. Yet, seeing all the "stuff" in the gift shop is a bonus and even if I don't buy anything it is so entertaining to read the t-shirts and funny little kichen towels.  So here are a couple of examples from my own collection when I succumbed to the laughter that it brought me. Yet, I don't regret buying them, they still makes me laugh. 

Returning to my original premise in this post, the fun with the labels almost always catches the eye of the consumer. If you buy a good wine, and the label is catchy, you are almost sure to find it again in the future.  I bought a wine once just because it had a lighthouse on it, shallow I know...but it turned out to be very tasty and now I can just look for the lighthouse. Nifty.  If the label has a "story" behind it and evokes memories for you....all the better to cement it in your mind as a great wine.  And of course, the bringing to mind a great story is always a bonus. The example I am thinking of is Casillero Del Diablo. Wonderful wines from Chile! My Spanish is not so great, I originally thought it meant "Castle of the Devil", I was close but not quite. I worked with a gal that spoke Spanish (I miss working with Jessica, she was so much fun!) and she clarified that it means "Locker of the Devil". So keep the "devil" locked up. Well, come to find out there is a very interesting legend about this. From the wine maker's web site:

"As the story goes, more than a hundred years ago the founder of our winery, Don Melchor Concha y Toro, hid a prized collection of wines in his personal cellar protected behind a wrought iron gate. However, over time he began to notice that bottles would strangely disappear. It seemed his secret cellar was no longer so secret, and that the townspeople, having heard of his exquisite wines, couldn't resist tasting them for themselves.

Needing a new way to safeguard his treasure, Don Melchor turned to local folklore. Knowing that superstitions and otherworldly phenomena were feared by the local people, he spread the rumor of strange nighttime events that could only be explained by a simple fact: that the devil inhabited his cellar. Fueled by the locals’ imagination, each sound in the cellar—every echo, shadow, and shape—gave weight to the story."

Wow, what an intriguing story...to this day, they still have a little emblem of a devil on the label. There always seems to be stories behind your favorite wine.  With a little bit of digging you can find them and remember:

     "WINE! Because no Great Story ever started with someone eating a salad."

                                                   Cheers!

Julie E. Smith