Richards Wild Irish Rose Wine

Richards Wild Irish Rose

Richards Wild Irish Rose

 

 

 

Low-end fortified wines are inexpensive fortified wines that typically have an alcohol content

between 15% and 20% ABV. These wines often contain added sugar, artificial color, and artificial flavor.

 

Brands

  • MD 20/20 (often called by its nickname Mad Dog) is an American fortified wine. MD 20/20

has an alcohol content that varies by flavor from 13% to 18% (with most of the 18% varieties

discontinued, although Red Grape is reportedly available in 18% ABV). The MD actually stands for its producer: Mogen David.

  • Cisco is the brand name of a highly alcoholic wine-based beverage, produced by the

Centerra Wine Company (a division of Constellation Brands) with varieties selling at 13.9%,

17.5% and 19.5% alcohol by volume. Cisco has a syrupy consistency, sweet taste and, because

of its color and bottle shape, was often mistaken for a wine cooler. The Federal Trade Commission

required the company to put a label on the bottle stating that Cisco was not a wine cooler, and to

 change its marketing strategy from "Takes You By Surprise."[1]

were a large part of that company's early success.

  • Ripple was a fortified wine produced by E & J Gallo Winery[2] that was popular in the

 United States, particularly in the 1970s. Possessing a low 11% ABV (lower than modern table

wines), it was originally marketed to "casual" drinkers.[3] Due to its low price, it had a reputation

as a drink for alcoholics and the destitute. It was popular among young drinkers, both underage

and college students. It is no longer produced. This brand was also frequently referenced on

Sanford and Son, including a variation mixed with champagne called "Champipple."

  • Night Train Express (usually abbreviated to Night Train) typically contains 17.5%

 alcohol by volume. Night Train Express has been condemned by some civic leaders who think

inexpensive high alcohol content drinks contribute to vagrancy and public drunkenness.[4] Night

Train no longer carries the Gallo logo or other indication of this source. It is also the origin of

the Guns N' Roses song Nightrain.

  • Thunderbird (The American Classic), between 13% and 18% ABV. Popular since the 1950s,

when a popular rhythm and blues song went: "What's the word? Thunderbird / How's it sold? Good

 and cold / What's the jive? Bird's alive / What's the price? Thirty twice."[5] Once marketed in the

 United Kingdom as "The California Aperitif." There is a now a sister version, Thunderbird ESQ.

  • Richards Wild Irish Rose is an alcoholic beverage produced by Centerra Wine Company,

 which is part of the Constellation Brands organization. It was introduced in 1954 and currently

sells about two million cases annually. The brand is available in 13.9% and 18% alcohol by volume.

under license from an English Monastery. It has been said to be the cause of significant social

problems in Scotland and Ireland.[6]

 

  • Stones Green Ginger Wine is a classy, ginger-based wine, produced in the UK. It has an

alcohol level of 13.7% and is very popular in Australia, where it has attained near-legendary status,

as a cheap intoxicant, beloved of students and bohemians.

  • Scotsmac is a blend of wine and whisky sold in the UK. It typically retails for about £3.50,

significantly cheaper than its rival, Buckfast.

  • Solntsedar was a Soviet brand of low-end fortified wine, marketed as "port wine," infamous

for many severe cases of poisoning. Its production was canceled after Mikhail Gorbachev's anti-alcohol laws.

  • 777 is a Russian "port wine" similar to Solntsedar, but still in production. It, nicknamed

Three axes" after the shape of the digits, attained a near-legendary status among Soviet and

 Russian students and members of youth subcultures, who were and are often poor.

History

An early reference to the problem of cheap and poorly made wines is in the "Report on Cheap

Wines" in the 5 November 1864 issue of The Medical Times and Gazette. The author, in prescribing

 inexpensive wines for a number of ills, cautions against the "fortified" wines of the day, describing

of one sample that he had tried:

"When the cork was drawn it was scarcely tinted, and was a very bad one - a thing of no

good augury for the wine. There was no smell of port wine. The liquid, when tasted, gave

the palate half-a-dozen sensations instead of one. There was a hot taste of spirits, a sweet

taste, a fruity taste like damsons, and an unmistakable flavor of Roussillon [an alternative

name in France for wine made from the grape Grenache]. It was a strong, unwholesome

liquor, purchased very dearly."[7]

It is reported, however, that the popularity of cheap, fortified wines in the United States arose in

the 1930s, as a product of Prohibition and the Great Depression:

"Prohibition produced the Roaring Twenties and fostered more beer and distilled-spirit

drinkers than wine drinkers, because the raw materials were easier to come by. But fortified

wine, or medicinal wine tonic--containing about 20 percent alcohol, which made it more like

a distilled spirit than regular wine--was still available and became America's number one

wine. Thunderbird and Wild Irish Rose, to name two examples, are fortified wines. American

wine was soon more popular for its effect than its taste; in fact, the word wino came into use

during the Depression to describe those unfortunate souls who turned to fortified wine to

forget their troubles." -Kevin Zraly, Kevin Zraly's American Wine Guide (2006) p. 38.

Concerns and media attention

More recently, the appeal of cheap fortified wines to the poor and homeless has raised concerns:

"Community groups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland have urged makers

of fortified wines such as Wild Irish Rose and E & J Gallo's Thunderbird and Night Train brands

to pull their products from the shelves of liquor retailers in skid row areas. In

 Nashville, Tennessee, one liquor store owner told Nashville Business Journal reporter

 Julie Hinds that police warned him to stop selling his biggest selling product, Wild Irish Rose,

because it encouraged homeless people to linger in the area." -Janice Jorgensen, Encyclopedia

 of Consumer Brands: Consumable Products (1993), p. 492.

In 2005, the Seattle City Council asked the Washington State Liquor Control Board to prohibit the

sale of certain alcohol products in an impoverished "Alcohol Impact Area". Among the products

sought to be banned were over two dozen beers, and six wines: Cisco, Gino's Premium Blend, MD

20/20, Night Train, Thunderbird, and Wild Irish Rose.[8] The Liquor Control Board approved these

restrictions on 30 August 2006.[9]