To a Miller Lite-drinking, displaced Ohioan like me, wine is wine. I enjoy it—the redder and drier the better—but I don’t care if it’s Cabernet, Merlot, or Pinot Noir.
But my fellow San Franciscans take their wine seriously enough that the vintners’ label actually means something: The owner of a wine bar in the city says sales of “Palin,” a Syrah, have plummeted since John McCain tapped Sarah Palin to be his running mate:
“It was our best selling wine before (the V.P. announcement),” said Chris Tavelli, owner of Yield Wine Bar, which has offered Palin Syrah, a certified organic wine from Chile, by the glass since July. But after Sen. John McCain tagged Sarah Palin as his running mate, sales of the wine with the conservative’s inverted name plummeted.
Sure, the wine’s name is ironic, but it’s just wine; it’s not as if naming it “Palin” turns it to moose blood.
