What's in a name?

I note with some amusement that the selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee has affected wine sales from a Chilean vintner that inadvertently shares the same name. Democrats in California are reportedly balking at drinking Palin wines, while Republicans in Texas are guzzling with gusto.

Choosing a wine based on its name is not anything unusual for aficionados. I remember when I was in Spain a few years ago attending a colloquium on the Historia Augusta — a literary work from the end of antiquity that contains biographies of many Roman emperors — one of the participants brought a bottle of wine with him from France that had the name Le Prince Probus.

Probus was an emperor who, the not-always-trustworthy Historia Augusta tells us, encouraged the planting of vineyards in what today is France. The French wine that happened to be named after him seemed particularly appropriate for that gathering.