Prison themed wine

If you were launching a vineyard and looking for ways to market your product, would you choose prison themes and imagery as your main selling point? For a few years now a vineyard out of California, located next door to the notorious Soledad prison unit, has operated as the Big House Wine Company, with product names like "Big House Red," "Unchained," "The Usual Suspect," "The Bird Man," and "The Slammer." They've got fun art on the labels and if your vineyard operates in the shadow of a famous prison I suppose I can understand the branding decision.

Anyway, last night we had a party at the house to celebrate the missus' birthday and afterward while cleaning up, I noticed one of our guests brought a vintage from "Chain Gang Vineyards" out of California called "First Timer," with a faux mugshot on the label no less. I found no website for the brand, but while searching I did run across something called Rockpile Vineyards in northern California. There, according to SanFranciscoWineTours.com, "Legend has it that the appellation's unusual name comes from the Rockpile Ranch, where Sheriff Tennessee Bishop would put prisoners to work building roads to his mountain home. It was the men on the chain gang who allegedly dubbed the place 'rockpile.'" One prison-themed vineyard may be an outlier; three perhaps signal a trend. Either way, kind of an odd marketing decision, doncha think?