I've always wondered if it was just me, but I always find it a bit tacky and annoying when a winery/brand's name is literally just the full name of some guy (maybe the guy who owns it or started it...or is just a tangentially related historical figure). Examples in Australia, where I'm from would be brands like Peter Lehmann, Jim Barry, Rob Dolan etc. It just comes across as egotistical, and at odds with the communal spirit of wine (in both its creation and enjoyment).
My other big one is the use of numbers (be it block numbers, vat numbers, bin numbers etc) to name a wine. Granted, it makes a little more sense than the dude-name, because often in the winery we are working with numbers like this...but it just seems like such a lazy, over-done and uninspiring way to actually label the finished wine, especially because so many people have been doing it since forever - and because the person drinking it doesn't really care about, have the context to make sense of, or need to know these numbers. Take two different Australian reds: Penfolds: Bin 389, and Clarendon Hills: Astralis. One of those evokes imagery that communicates a feeling, and the other one is Penfolds: Bin 389.
French chefs are fond of saying "on mange avec les yeux", or "we eat [first] with our eyes", and I believe this firmly applies to what's on the outside of a bottle of wine too - you're telling a story with words and art and design, all of which are going to prime the experience of drinking that wine in different ways. I believe names and imagery should work harmoniously to evoke poetically and artistically the spirit of a wine, and be the first step in the drinker's sensory appreciation - and that ideally, they should create a sense of specialness and stillness that opens up the senses for what's to come.
If it's just Bob Smith Block 7 Cabernet with some ugly squiggle and font on it like 90% of what's out there, a valuable part of the potential experience (and salability) of a wine is compromised, IMO
For 15 years, Athan Zafirov has traveled the vineyards around the world and worked with some of the greatest chefs including Francois Duc and Alan Brown.
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