This post started out to be about weird wine names. Why? you ask. Well, it's Monday. And the time changed this weekend. Frankly, that seemed like enough reason, but add in the fact that I was dusting off wine bottles this weekend, in preparation for an upcoming camping trip (yes, I drink wine on camping trips), and stumbled across a bottle of Rigatoni Red ....

And then I wrote out the clever title, and thought, hmm...I was trying to think of a good wine to focus on this week, with the weather (in Orlando) being very spring-like...so tomorrow or Wednesday I'll post on rose wine. That'll give me time to check out a couple I've been meaning to taste.

Back to the weird wine names. No, I've not tried the Rigatoni Red. I'd forgotten I had it, and I ate pasta a lot last week (read: more than once), so it'll probably be another few before I get to it. Rigatoni Red, and a few other wines, try to make the wine/food experience a little simpler and accessible by making it really obvious what the wine pairs with. Other names are just downright clever--Bonny Doon is famous for these. Big House, le Cigare, for example. Zinfandel wines also lend themselves to the clever name--and since they're big, lush (in my vocabulary, any way) wines, calling them Sin Zin and Cardinal Zin doesn't seem like such a stretch.

I rarely give in to the temptation to buy a wine based on its name--really, it can be hard to tell if it's the result of a winemaker with a sense of humor or just a ploy to grab your attention. Fortunately, I often get them as gifts, so it's harder to needlessly destroy my budget. Which is how I came up with the aforementioned Rigatoni Red. I'll let you know how that one turns out.