Carlo Rossi and his bottom-shelf friends (Gallo, Almaden, etc) make some interesting varieties of wine. “Rhine Style” and “Sangria” are two flavors available in the big jug size. To my mind calling it Rhine Style is slightly more specific than just putting “Germany Wine” on the label, which would be one stage away from “Grape Wine”. Which, to be fair, would distinguish it from Boone’s Farm.
This is by no means the strangest thing in the liquor store. Have you tried ChocoVine? “The taste of Dutch chocolate and fine red wine” it says, right there on the bottle. Looks indistinguishable from YooHoo.
Marketing these things must be an interesting challenge. Since “even cheaper than Red Truck” isn’t a compelling slogan, even the lowest-end products are marketing based on alleged quality.
“Pruning, weeding, cultivating…that’s hard work, but that’s why our wines taste different,” says Carlo in large type on the company website. (Think about that for just a sec.)
And my favorite: ChocoVine touts its status as “still to this day the #1 selling Chocolate Wine in America.”
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