Sometimes the label really matters

I’ve seen this story picked up in a few different places, and was rather surprised when it made it to the UK’s Decanter.com, but it still makes me chuckle.

Palin Syrah is a South American Syrah from the boutique winery named Palin (pronounced Pay-leen in this case) and named for a Chilean hockey puck.

It seems to be provoking interesting reactions. At Yield wine bar in rather liberal San Francisco, the once popular wine has plummeted in sales. The owner has started to ask customers to write their own description of the wine:

Recent popular descriptors include
‘moosemeat’, ‘gunpowder’ and ‘hockey mom’ – all words associated Sarah
Palin.

According to Decanter and Fox News, however, sales of the wine are doing quite well in more conservative Houston, where the wine has been flying off the shelves.

The wine, by the way, is supposedly a good value organic wine, coming
in around $12.99 and tasting of "white pepper and madrone."

It’s tempting to see if Liquor Direct carries this wine. I could put it on the table just to conduct a psychological experiment. How many people would be more intrigued by the wine because it sounds so much like Sarah Palin, and how many folks would be extremely unhappy? Wouldn’t it be interesting? (Don’t worry – I’m not going to bring politics to the tasting table. I’m just intrigued by the idea.)

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2 Responses to “Sometimes the label really matters”

1. Fabio says:

   September 25, 2008 at 11:29 am

   Unbelievable! How can someone don’t taste a wine just because the name?
2. Mary says:

   October 11, 2008 at 9:53 pm

   Did you ever find this wine? Just curious if it is in OH!