There is perhaps no drink that carves out a space in your memory the way your first sip of alcohol does. Whether consumed illicitly or legally, there’s a high likelihood that simply remembering the beverage is enough to run a shiver down your spine and induce a psychosomatic hangover. But before the youths of today started downing socially acceptable hard seltzers, spiked teas, and boozy lemonades, one wine reigned supreme on the party scene. Well, wine product.
First introduced in 1961 by E. & J. Gallo, Boone’s Farm immediately made a splash with younger consumers thanks to its approachable juicy fruit flavor (apple), lower alcohol content (between 5 and 7.5 percent ABV), and very affordable $2 price. By the 1970s, Boone’s Farm was a certified party staple, with many baby boomers and Gen Xers citing the brand as their first alcoholic drink.
Like most drinks popular in the ‘70s, the vibrant-hued wine garnered a notorious reputation for its saccharine taste that often resulted in nights spent on a bathroom floor. By the 1980s, consumers had pivoted to other similarly sweet beverages like Bartles & Jaymes, California Cooler, and later, Zima, Smirnoff Ice, and, of course, Four Loko. Despite being eclipsed by other options, though, Boone’s Farm, like the little engine that could, continued to chug along. In fact, it’s still made today, though bottles are far less available than they were a few decades ago.
Read on to discover more about Boone’s Farm’s journey from cultural phenomenon to nostalgia beverage.
Once upon a time, Boone’s Farm could legally be considered wine.
When Boone’s Farm first hit shelves in 1961, labels described it as 100 percent pure apple wine. And it was true. Despite having plenty of added sugar, the alcohol was produced entirely from fermented apple juice, which fits the legal definition of wine in the United States. Boone’s Farm Apple Wine was later used as the base for numerous flavor extensions, including Strawberry Hill, one of the brand’s most popular offerings.
The product was reformulated in the early 1990s.
While Boone’s Farm may have legally been able to call some of its products wine, things changed in 1991 when Congress passed a federal alcohol-tax increase. The legislation saw the federal tax on wine jump from just 17 cents per gallon to $1.07 — a 530 percent increase. To avoid higher tax rates, Boone’s Farm was reformulated to have a fermented malt beverage base, which allowed the product to be classified, and therefore taxed, as beer instead. It was around this same time that the brand expanded to include flavors like Fuzzy Navel, Blue Hawaiian, Melon Ball, Watermelon, Snow Creek Berry, and more.
The brand is widely credited with starting the pop wine trend in America.
Defined as inexpensive, low-alcohol sweet wine often made with artificial fruit flavoring, “pop wine” doesn’t sound like anything novel in this day and age. (Not when products like Stella Rosa Pineapple & Chili are earning titles like “top new wine.”) But in the 1960s and ‘70s, pop wine was an innovative approach to winemaking, and Boone’s Farm is often credited with kickstarting the trend.
As pointed out in Mark Singer’s 1972 Esquire article “Sweet Wine of Youth,” in the 30 years leading up to the ‘70s, American soldiers were shuffled around countries where wine was readily available. At the same time, low-cost airlines made it easier for young people to travel to places where drinking wine was an everyday occurrence. More often than not, these young people would partake in the local culture, only to return home and see the same bottles they drank abroad retailing for four or five times the price. This created a demand for low-cost wine or wine-adjacent products, that pop wine was easily able to fill. And Boone’s Farm was leading the charge. According to Singer’s article, Boone’s Farm Apple Wine was the top-selling pop wine in the U.S. in 1972, with the No. 2 slot filled by its popular Strawberry Hill.
There was a real online fan club dedicated to the brand.
While Boone’s Farm’s popularity may have peaked in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the brand clearly retained quite a cult following, as evidenced by the official Boone’s Farm Fan Club website. Established in 2007, the site includes everything from reviews of the brand’s many flavors to testimonials and photos of fans posing with bottles. And if you have a special occasion coming up, you’re in luck, as there’s even a recipe for Boone’s Farm Wine Cake made from yellow cake mix, butterscotch instant pudding, and Strawberry Hill. Scrumptious. While the website is inactive today and appears to have been for some time, the fact that it was launched some 35 years after the brand’s heyday sure has to count for something.
It got a shout-out in the 2012 comedy ‘Pitch Perfect.’
After hesitantly agreeing to join her college’s all-female a cappella group, Beca (the film’s protagonist) quickly learns how seriously her new “sisters” take things when she’s required to attend a cult-like initiation ceremony. Upon having a hood removed from her head, she discovers that she’s in a room lit by hundreds of candles and is told by group leader Aubrey that they will begin by drinking the blood of the sisters that came before them. “Dude, no,” Beca responds. “Don’t worry, it’s Boone’s Farm,” Aubrey’s second-in-command, Chloe, quips back before handing the cup over. It’s a nice reminder of Boone’s Farm’s roots, but given the popularity of Franzia’s boxed wines at the time of the movie’s release, it would have been more convincing if the Barden Bellas were drinking something like Sunset Blush instead.
The brand is a popular topic of conversation on Reddit.
Given Boone’s Farm’s nostalgia factor, it’s a massively popular topic on Reddit, with almost every thread riddled with comments from users recounting their memories, or lack thereof, drinking the fruit “wine.” And none are particularly positive. In the subreddit r/AskOldPeople, user generalised_dyslexia asked, “What do you remember about Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill Wine?” to which user thenletskeepdancing simply responded, “how it tasted coming back up.” Other users, like LuckyFishBone, were more eloquent, but the sentiment remained the same: “I remember it was really cheap and really sweet, and that it made me really sick though I didn’t even drink that much of it. Never again.”
*Image retrieved from 31E Wines & Liquor via Facebook
