Few wineries bring a smile to the face like Australia's d'Arenberg, for a couple of reasons. First, many d'Arenberg wines are very good and have surprisingly low prices for their often very high quality.
Second, there are the names of the wines themselves - Footbolt, Peppermint Paddock, Stump Jump, Dead Arm, The Custodian, The Laughing Magpie, Ironstone Pressings.
Those who live near the township of McLaren Vale may nothing odd about these names since each one is a real name of a place, a road, or some historic event that happened in or near the town.
There's nothing laughable about this serious winery either. D'Arenberg was established in 1927 and its wines were well accepted in Australia from the start. By the 1960s they had attained cult status and were getting rave reviews from European and North American critics.
By Daniel Rogov
