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Naming companies go home: The wine industry uncorks whimsical business naming strategies.

Stu Pedasso took over his grandfather's collapsing winery, and the rest is history.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19, 2003. Searching for ways to break through to U.S. consumers, most of whom are far from being wine aficionados, some wineries are grabbing the goat by the horns and introducing inexpensive wines with whimsical names. After just two years in the U.S., a South African Rhone-styled blend called Goats Do Roam is selling 65,000 cases a year.

Fat Bastard Chardonnay, a French import which sells for $10 a bottle, is reportedly the fastest growing white import, selling 500,000 cases a year.

But all this goofy product naming from abroad may actually be influenced by U.S. vintners like Randall Grahm, the founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California. He began to experiment with quirky product names in the 1980's. In 1985, he developed a Grenache-based blend in the style of Chateauneuf du Pape, a classic Rhone red. He decided to try something a little subversive: he named it Le Cigare Volant (The Flying Cigar) after an Avignon ordinance from the 1950's which forbade the landing of flying saucers. The label depicts a flying saucer looming over a chateau with its vineyards, but it is executed in a classic style and comes with a pricetag of $31.

Other Bonny Doon brand names include Cardinal Zin--banned for a time in Ohio because it offended local religious leaders, and Big House Red, which has a prison on the label.

Another up-and-comer in the provocative names category is a $5 wine made by Forestville, California winemaker Michael Topolos. It is called Stu Pedasso (say it fast) and the label has a picture of a glazed over old-timer clutching a sturdy wine glass. To continue the escapade, Stu Pedasso plugs a wine called My Wife's White, with the label picturing Stu's wife, Rae Jean Beach.

All of which goes to prove that you don't necessarily need a naming company to come up with a great marketing strategy or product name. A few bottles of wine over a good meal just might do the trick.