No More Montana Wine

Say goodbye to one of New Zealand's major wine brands, Montana Wines: from this September it'll be known as Brancott Estate.
The name change is partly because of strong exports to USA - where Montana Wines has been known as Brancott Estate for more than a decade - to avoid market confusion (many Americans associated Montana Wines with the state of Montana, rather than Marlborough, NZ, even though Montana State's wine industry is only fledgling). The name Marlborough further caused poor wee Americans some confusion with Marlboro cigarettes (W-T-F?!).
The new name's not only the home of Montana's flagship Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, it's also their original Marlborough vineyard and where the variety was first planted in Marlborough in 1973.
We'll still see the name on the Montana Classics range here in Godzone, with Brancott Estate appearing as linkage on the label... but all other premium wines in the range including Montana Reserve wines, Montana Letter Series and Montana Living Land (launched this year) will change to the Brancott Estate name from the 2010 vintage.
So basically another piece of local identity becomes subjugated to The Almighty American Dollar.
Owners Pernod Ricard New Zealand has also announced it's the first NZ-based official sponsor of the *yawn* Rugby World Cup 2011...as if the beer-swilling rugby fans would really care!