There is a constant stream of new products, like blush wines and fruit-flavored wines and cult wines and garage wines and plastic corks and clever labels.
For years, I have thought that the Island's cleverest label component is the umlaut that Christian Wölffer, the German-born proprietor, placed in his name when Sagpond Vineyards in Sagaponack became the Wölffer Estate in 1997.
Since then it has been a fast-growing niche pushed along by an assortment of fads and trends, some of which were adopted as canon (clever or suggestive labels sell beer) while some remained on the fringe (chile peppers in beer).
The label bore clever vintneresque flourishes like "Fayetteville 2007".
On U Sound became synonymous with diverse releases unified by the clever packaging - the label's mid-1980s series of 10-inch singles now sell for up to £80 each.
South Africa's controversial president, Jacob Zuma, is well known for his antipathy towards urban black intellectuals, whom he labels "the clever blacks".
"Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada/ Basic bitches wear that shit so I don't even bother," runs the chorus, performing the clever trick of listing labels while standing up for DIY values.
If nothing else, the results of the competition would seem to show that, shorn of their carefully constructed mystiques, their beautiful labels and clever marketing, many expensive wines are really not that much superior to their less-expensive rivals.
Lacking fab labels and clever Superbowl commercials, they're overlooked and underrated.
The unspoken rules of the finance business have changed, and behavior that would get you arrested on a city street is deemed clever when it is labeled high finance.
