NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

mational. “Around 1980, however — earlier in the
New World, somewhat later in Europe — labels becam
e surfaces for communication, projecting a brand i
dentity for the wine and trying to reach a target
audience,” said Henry Urbach, an architectural cur
ator who organized the exhibition with the archite
cts Diller Scofidio & Renfro.
Casual became cheeky. Now, cheeky has given way to
saucy. In 2005, Brandever Strategy, a Vancouver b
rand consultancy, was hired by Scherzinger Estates
, a sleepy winery in British Columbia, to create a
new image and name. It came up with Dirty Laundry
Vineyard — an allusion to a Chinese laundry and b
ordello that flourished nearby during the gold rus
h era.
“Your immediate reaction is, this is not a good na
me for a wine, but that’s why it is a good name,”
said Bernie Hadley-Beauregard, a principal in Bran
dever. “It has a scratchy hook to it.”
Highway workers posted a new sign along the local
wine route. Traffic into the winery increased tenf
old. “The owner called me and said, ‘We haven’t do
ne any advertising, but suddenly we’re the toast o
f the Okanagan Valley.’ ”
The newer, racier-sounding wines are unlikely to d
isplace Barefoot, but they all chase the same drea
m. On the golden horizon, they see Fat Bastard, a
line of wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region
that was introduced in the United States in 1998.
Imported by Peter Click of Click Wine Group, the l
ine sold just over 2,000 cases at $10 a bottle in
its first year. By 2004, Fat Bastard was selling 4
25,000 cases, making it one of the most popular Fr
ench wines in the United States.
The other wines do not come close to those numbers
, but they have their little niche. Jim Knight, a