While visiting the zoo today, we stopped by one of our favorite exhibits, the Chilean flamingoes. As you can see in the photo above, what makes this exhibit unique is the inclusion of a Coscoroba swan, a South American bird that is usually found standing on one leg in the middle of the flamingo pack, sometimes with its beak tucked under his wing.

Try as it might to emulate its pink friends, it remains a swan, and a very loud one as evidenced by its frequent honks. The sight of this swan reminded me how often a wine fails the "duck test" (or in this case, the flamingo test), an examination which goes something like this: "if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."

I have written about this before in the commentary, "Vitis Vinifera: The Beauty Inside" and more recently about the differences between the 2006 and 2007 vintages of Oregon pinot noir. There are times, much too frequent these days, when a wine does not express its true nature. Sure, it might still be a drinkable wine, but this does not meet the bar when the bottle states a certain variety yet what's inside doesn't even come close.

This post is not intended for those viticulturists and winemakers who successfully express the variety of the grape they are growing and crafting, respectively. These are the folks who, like the pink Chilean flamingoes, don't try to be something they are not. You know it by what you see, smell and taste in the glass, a wine that expresses its identifiable traits, its true character.

But then there are the Coscoroba swans of the wine world, who on the label state one variety, but look, smell, and taste like something other than what they should be. Again, some may argue that the wine is fine, just made in a different style. Well then, why not label yourself as such...say a Coscoroba swan on the shelf alongside a bunch of Chilean flamingoes.

Seriously, if you are a winemaker who is going to deviate from a variety's true nature, then please do all of us a favor and say so on the label. Let us know what other varieties were included, let us know how ripe the grapes were when picked, let us know how much new oak was used, let us know what else was added into the wine during its production.

Be honest with what you've produced, rather than pretending to be something you're not. By just admitting that you are a swan from the onset, we may end up respecting you more, as opposed to laughing you off as nothing more than a white, honking goose-like bird desperately trying be a pink flamingo.