Stag Wars

When the Stags Leap District American Viticultural Area was approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in 1989, the owners of Stags’ Leap Winery and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars had been in litigation for years over rights to the name. Finally, the two vintners and the federal agency agreed on a subtle but clear solution. The name of the district would be sans apostrophe, and each winery would use an apostrophe in a different place (before or after the s). That was enough to satisfy the attorneys, if not the litigants themselves.