What Is It about Dogs and Wine?

I posted recently about the Dog Lovers Wine Club, a boutique winery in California that puts real dogs on the labels and shares the proceeds with animal groups. The downside: Residents of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey - 26 other states - can't be members. You have to live in a state in which it's legal to receive wine shipments. So find someone in New York or Ohio or Wisconsin who will accept orders for you.

For the rest of us without connections, we have options:

I loved Jim Jim's shiraz ($10.99 and found at Cochran Liquors in Middletown), with a great dog illustration on the label and the screw top. This might be a very good weekend to indulge with a glass or two.

Readers mentioned that Jim Jim also makes a chardonnay and a merlot, and that Red Bicyclette has a little white dog chasing a baguette-carrying man on a red bike.

A reporter from Newsday on Long Island says at a kennel-club holiday party that he/she attended last month, the most-coveted grab-bag gift was a doggie-decorated bottle of Australian chardonnay called Jealous Bitch. Has anyone seen this one locally?

If you need a decanter, check out the selection at Whiskazz and Pawzz in Hockessin. Very cute.

And if wine isn't your thing, one reader reported that Spanish Peaks Brewing Co. makes Black Dog ales that come with "the cutest black paw prints on the bottle caps." The black Lab on the label is Chug, the dog of the company's founder. The company's Web site says it is distributed in Delaware. Where has anyone seen it?

Any other wines or beers with a dog (or cat) theme that you'd recommend?