Wine Snobs, Don’t Let a Cute Critter on the Label Come Between You and a Great Bottle

A wine with an animal on its label is often regarded as less-than-serious, meant to appeal more to pet lovers than oenophiles.

“Animals give consumers vibes of cheapness,” observed Jeffrey Wolfe, proprietor of Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe in Coral Gables, Fla. Blame it on Yellow Tail, that cheap Aussie wine with the cheerful wallaby logo. Yellow Tail spawned a veritable den of “critter wines” two decades ago, and few left an enduring impression of quality.

I thought about all of that recently when I went looking for a wine with a horse on its label. I’d written a biography of Marguerite Henry, the author of “Misty of Chincoteague” among other horse books for children, and wanted to serve “horse wines” at my book signings. As it happened, I turned up several good bottles. Perhaps other good wines were hiding behind pictures of sheep, lions or bears?

I found a number of bottles whose labels were inspired by the animals that roam the landscapes where the wines were produced. For example, the mascot on the label of the 2022 Black Cabra Malbec ($US10)—a wine marked by soft tannins and notes of red fruit and spice—pays homage to the black goat that wanders the Argentine Andes, the location of the winery and vineyards. It’s a great-value red from winemaker Fabian Valenzuela and vineyard manager Carlos Correas of Bodega Zolo.

The solo sheep on the label of the dry, refreshingly light 2023 Landhaus Mayer Grüner Veltliner ($US12) nods to a long association between sheep and viticulture in the Weinviertel region of Lower Austria. According to Paul Kiefer, sales director of Mayer am Pfarrplatz winery and its label Landhaus Mayer, sheep historically grazed between the grapevines planted both outside and within city limits in the region. “Maximising space for agriculture and viticulture was key,” Kiefer said. Adorably, sheep can still be found in vineyards there today.

For the label of the 2020 Roberto Henríquez Tierra de Pumas Bio Bío Valley País ($US20), winemaker Roberto Henríquez chose two pumas, an endangered species in the Nahuelbuta Mountain Range, near his winery in the Bio Bío valley of Chile. The wine itself is a soft, slightly funky, intriguingly earthy, low-alcohol red made from Pais grapes harvested from old vines.

The Catalan donkeys on the label of the 2021 Clos dels Guaràns VI Negre “Les Someres” ($20) may be whimsically depicted wearing dainty frocks, but their breed is likewise endangered. In this blend of red grapes from Catalonia’s Penedès region, winemaker Jordi Raventos has produced a pleasing low-alcohol wine marked by bright acidity and ripe fruit.

Among the wines I found with horse labels, five stood out: three rosés and two reds. Two of the rosés were produced on Long Island by vintner-equestrians. The soft, slightly fruity, Merlot-dominant 2023 Wölffer Estate Rosé ($US16) is a reliably good pink whose label features a subtle gold profile of a horse entwined with grapes. The Sagaponack winery was founded by the late Christian Wölffer, a businessman and horseman who built both a winery and a horse barn.

The juicy, slightly tart 2023 Macari Sparkling Horses Cabernet Franc Pet-Nat ($US32) sports a full-colour profile of a horse on its label. The rendering was inspired by winery operations director Gabriella Macari’s love of horses. It’s also a nod to the unofficial name of the North Fork property her grandfather purchased in the 1960s: Locals referred to it as “Horse Head Bluffs,” said Macari, after a horse-head-shaped dune that once stood at the edge of what is now their vineyard.

The 2023 The Withers El Dorado Rosé ($US22) was produced in California but inspired by the rosés of Bandol, France, according to vintner Andrew Tow, who also makes Rhone-style reds and Pinot Noirs. All of his wine labels feature a portrait of Mr. Burgess, the beloved horse of his wife and the winery’s co-owner, Kathleen Tow. Even the name of the winery is horse-oriented: The Withers is the name of the point at which a horse’s neck and back meet.

Equestrian and vintner Ernesto Catena (son of famed Malbec producer Nicolás Catena) chose colourful horses in heraldic gear to decorate the label of his delicious red-berry-fruited 2022 Padrillos Malbec Mendoza ($US10). “We pay homage to the Padrillo, a strong but sensitive creature, that is very playful, free spirited and of strong nature at the same time,” Catena explained in an email. The wine is sourced from two old-vine high-elevation Malbec vineyards and aged in used and neutral oak at his winery Finca de los Padrillos.

Adding a horse to the label of the toothsome, juicy 2022 Clos de Roilette Cuvée Christie Fleurie ($US22) was not, originally, an entirely playful move according to the winery’s importer, Kevin McKenna, of Louis Dressner Wines in New York. In the 1930s, Mr. Crozet, the then-owner of the esteemed Beaujolais estate, was irked when his wines lost their Moulin-à-Vent appellation and were assigned to the new and, as yet, far-less-prestigious Fleurie. So he struck the appellation from all his labels and emblazoned them instead with a portrait of his prized racehorse, Roilette. The estate’s current owners, the Couderts, continue to use the iconic portrait, though they’ve added the Fleurie name, which has gained esteem in the intervening decades.

An amphibious label I’ve loved for a long time, Frog’s Leap is in a league of its own. Launched in 1981—“long before the arrival of ‘critter wines,’ ” founder John Williams noted—this Napa winery has long produced affordable, delicious wines. Its tangy 2023 Frog’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford ($US24) is no exception. Williams described the origin of the name thusly: “a drunken contraction of Stag’s Leap [Wine Cellars], where I spent my formative years as their first winemaker, and the Frog Farm, the beloved home of Larry Turley, my co-founder.” Label artist Charles House took the name as a jumping-off point to create his now-famous leaping frog.

Surprisingly, one species that proved scarce in my search for animals on wine labels was man’s best friend. I looked high and low but found only one (not-so-great) wine whose label featured a dog. As the owner of two Pembroke Welsh corgis, I’d hoped to find a good wine-canine combo. If anyone finds a bottle with a corgi on the label, please let me know.

Charities, distant relatives and even pets are benefiting from surprise inheritances. They can thank people without children.

Not having children is becoming more common, both among millennials and older people. A July Pew Research Center analysis found that 20% of U.S. adults age 50 and older hadn’t had children.

And many of these people don’t have wills. An AARP survey found half of childless people age 50-plus who live alone have a will, compared with 57% of others that age. Those without wills have less control over what happens to their money, which often ends up in the hands of people who don’t expect it.

This phenomenon of a surprise inheritance is common enough that it has a name: the laughing heir .

“All they do is get the money and go, ‘Ah ha ha, look at that,’ ” said Michael Ettinger , an estate lawyer in New York.

Kelley Gilpin McKeig, a 64-year-old healthcare-industry consultant in Ridgefield, Wash., received a phone call several years ago saying her cousin Nick Caldwell left behind money in a savings account. They hadn’t been in touch for 20 years.

“I thought it was a scam,” she said. “Nobody else in our family had heard that he had passed.”

She hunted down his death certificate and a news article and learned he had died about a year and a half before in a workplace accident.

Caldwell, who was in his 50s, had died without a will. His estate was split among cousins and an uncle. It took about two years for the money to be distributed because of the paperwork and court approval involved. Gilpin McKeig’s share was $2,300.

Afterward, she updated her will to make sure what she has doesn’t go to “just anybody down the line, or cousins I don’t care about.”

Who inherits

There are trillions of dollars at stake as baby boomers age.

Most people leave their money to spouses and children when they die. A 2021 analysis of Federal Reserve survey data found that 82% of heirs’ inheritances came from parents.

People with no children say they want to leave a greater share of their estates to charity, friends and extended family , according to research by two Yale law professors that surveyed 9,000 U.S. adults.

Rebecca Fornwalt, a 33-year-old writer, created a trust after landing a book deal. While her heirs are her parents, her backup heirs include her sister and about a half-dozen close friends. She set aside $15,000 for the care of each of her two dogs.

Susan Lassiter-Lyons , a financial coach in Florence, Ariz., said one childless client is leaving equal interests in her home to her two nephews. Another is leaving her home to a man she has been friends with for a long time.

“She broke his heart years ago and she feels guilted into leaving him property,” Lassiter-Lyons said.

A client who is a former escort estranged from her family is leaving her estate to two friends and to charity.

Lassiter-Lyons, who doesn’t have children, set up a trust for her two dogs should she and her wife die. The pet guardian, her wife’s sister, would live in their house while taking care of the dogs. When the dogs die, she inherits the house.

In the Yale study, people without descendants—children or grandchildren—intended to give 10% of their estates to charity, on average, more than triple the intended amount of those with descendants.

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, which manages $1.3 billion of assets, a few years ago added an “heirless donors” section to its website that profiles donors and talks about building a legacy.

“Fifteen years ago, we never talked about child-free donors at all,” said Lew Groner , the foundation’s vice president for marketing.

In the absence of a will, heirs are determined by state law . Assets can wind up in the state’s hands. In New York, for example, $240 million in unclaimed funds over the past 10 years has arrived from estates of the deceased, not including real estate, according to the state comptroller’s office. In California, it is $54.3 million.

Hard questions

Financial advisers say a far bigger concern than who gets what is making sure there is enough money and support for a comfortable old age, because clients without children can’t call on them for help.

“I hope there is something left to leave,” said Stephanie Maxfield, a 43-year-old therapist in southern Colorado. “But if there isn’t, I think that’s OK, too.”

She said she would like to leave something to her partner’s nieces and nephews, as well as animal shelters and domestic-violence shelters. Her best friend is a beneficiary.

Choosing an estate executor and who would handle money and health decisions on your behalf can be difficult when you don’t have children, financial advisers say. Using a promised inheritance as a reward for taking care of you when you are older isn’t a good solution, said Jay Zigmont , an investment adviser focused on childless people.

“Unfortunately, it is relatively common to see family members who are in the will decide to opt for cheaper medical care (or similar decisions) in order to protect what they will be inheriting,” he said in an email.

Kirsten Tompkins, who is from Birmingham, U.K., and works in consulting, along with her husband divided their estate among their dozen nieces and nephews.

Choosing heirs was the easy part. What is hard is figuring out whom to ask for help as she and her husband get older, she said.

“A lot of us are at an age where we are playing that role for our parents,” the 50-year-old said, referring to tasks such as providing tech support and taking parents to medical appointments. “Who is going to do that for us?”

Wine Snobs, Don’t Let a Cute Critter on the Label Come Between You and a Great Bottle

For a couple of decades now, oenophiles have turned up their noses at the many ‘critter wines’ that followed in the wake of a certain Aussie label and its colourful wallaby. Time to reconsider.

The bequests benefit charities, distant relatives and even pets

Who inherits

Hard questions