How or why did you pick your business name?

With the exception of the obvious of using your name for your wine or business. What made you select the name of your wine or business?

We purchased our store with the name as it is. How bout you ?

I was looking for something descriptive. The software was designed to let someone track their cellar.

Even though it seems obvious, there’s a bit more to our winery name than just ego. Actually, it really isn’t ego involved when you name your winery after yourself. I always tell people to use their name because it avoids a lot of explaining and confusion. When you introduce yourself, people immediately connect you with the brand. And there’s one less question that you’ll have to answer 600 times each day at a huge tasting.

Back to the “more part”. We could have just called it Loring. Or Loring Wine Cellars. Or Loring Winery. But I added the “Wine Company” as an homage to Josh Jensen. Josh has always been a hero to me, and he was my early inspiration to get into the biz. Plus, I always thought that Calera Wine Company sounded like a very hard working, non-elitist kinda winery. And I wanted to project that as well.

I think using your last name is a homage to your family. Mine have owned and run a mortuary business in Pasadena for over 100 years. Thier reputation is everything to thier business, much like wineries.

I totally appreciate using your last name and agree is paying tribute to your family name. What prompted me to start this thread was looking at some of the winery names leaves me scratching my head. Recently I’ve seen names such, Gobsmacker, Pan Cake and a few others that made little sense to me.

Tell that to Pax Mahle!

Or Richard Sanford. It’s obviously not without risk.

Or Kent Rosenblum, on the other hand. Nice Grape Radio episode with him.

On the other hand, there are some people who should absolutely NOT use their names. I would be one of them. There are a few eponymous wineries in Paso, and I wonder what in god’s name made them use their own name. There are difficult or unappealing. Croad comes to mind. Croad? Really? It sounds like a skin affliction to me.

Cargasacchi? It was what my Mommy and Daddy named me.

Gee, I thought your name was Point Concepción?

And he should name his first born . . . 100 Point Concepción!

Grocery store I bought already named…my brother in law, then partner came up with Hoosier Buddy Liquors for our package store.

JD

Already named, and by the time I bought out my old partner, it was too established. I hate it.

U.S. Wine Imports gets good Google results (presuming one looks for some combination of “usa,” “wine,” and “importers”), sounds professional/serious, and isn’t connected to our personal names, a situation that sometimes drives a cult of personality. Although we’re not looking to build it up and sell, it’s still nice to think that our success isn’t linked (rightly or wrongly) to either of us. We wanted the company to carry the reputation, figuring U.S. Wine Imports can outlast either of us.

Flying Wine Cellars

My husband was a naval aviator & Top Gun Pilot. He is currently an airline pilot who builds planes, races in the Reno Air Races and he is the hero in my life! We spend our free time flying to wine country destinations and going to air shows.

Additionally I tend to think we have nothing but liquid investments - AvGas and Grape Juice.

Marilyn Sherman
Flying Wine Cellars

Interesting topic!

My buddy and I are still grappling with a name for our wine business. The obvious choice was combining our last names, but we don’t like how it looks, sounds, etc. and we’d like to come up with something that’s more creative.

His last name is Big?

Match is my wife’s last name and I think someone else was using the name Sloan in Napa.

I didn’t want my name as part of the business name. It just happened that way.

Being the first true wine bar in Delaware, we wanted to make sure that the name clearly said that wine was our focus.

I initially considered Syrah or Shiraz as the name. I offered the naming rights up to several friends.

Not satisfied with most of their answers, I picked up my copy of the Oxford Companion to Wine and started going down the list until a word hit my (and my friends) focus.

When we hit the “D” section of the Jancis Robinsons’ tome, the word Domaine struck us all as relevant. My initial concern was that, to the non-wine world, Domaine as a name may sound like a computer services company, re internet domain names.

That’s why we added our last name to the title, Domaine Hudson wine bar & eatery. Wine bar was used first, to emphasis the wine aspect. Eatery was used as, imho, it evokes more substantial food than grille or other restaurant synonyms.

Prior to opening our wine bar, I was a CPA for 20+ years, including a portion of which was as a partner in a nationwide CPA firm.

To escape the stresses of my day job, my wife and I loved to renovate historic houses and have bought and sold several in the Wilmington, DE area. We currently live in a c. 1914 former B&B.

We often refer to our house as Chateau Hudson, in reference to all the wine we stored and served there. Our small business, which is a reflection of our passion for wine and food, seemed appropriate to be called Domaine Hudson. Our 76 seat wine bar includes many items from our house, including oriental rugs, leather plate chargers, furniture, paint colors, etc.

We opened 11/05 and are still going strong, although the current economy, for the first time, has caused our growth to temporarily decrease. I’m confident we’ll return to our former sales levels.