RED THUNDERBIRD DRINK MANUAL
RED THUNDERBIRD DRINK TV

It was a wine cooler (before they called it that) with a bit of a bite. In fact, Ripple was merely an artificially-flavored, lightly-carbonated sweet wine drink weighing in at 11%. Social workers and other assorted handwringers of the day attached so much infamy to its name that one imagines it was some manner of vile high-proof elixir reeking of brimstone. History has unjustly vilified Ripple as a wino wine. The wine snobs said it wasn’t really wine and the grown-ups dismissed it as spiked punch in a bottle. And here was something new and different, even rebellious. A new generation of drinkers was rising up, and these kids, who the media termed “hippies,” were keenly interested in rebelling against everything their parents stood for, including their choice of adult refreshment. The Rise: Gallo’s timing, it turned out, was better than they could have imagined. Following the booming success of the original Red flavor, Pear and Pagan Pink were introduced in the mid-60s.

RED THUNDERBIRD DRINK TV

Early TV and radio spots called it a “new drink for lively people,” “the ice cold refresher with twice the pleasure,” and, a bit oddly, “the wine that winks back at you.” The glass of the bottle bore a distinctive ripple pattern but, tellingly, no mention of the E&J Gallo Winery. Something light and fizzy that might appeal to novice drinkers who didn’t particularly care for the taste of hops, or alcohol for that matter. The Concept: Ripple came to life as a wine maker’s attempt to seize a chunk of the youth market. Ripple is a pleasant word describing, as it does, liquid making a pretty motion. More likely it just seemed like a nice name for a new kind of drink.

RED THUNDERBIRD DRINK MANUAL

The Name: Some armchair etymologists claim “ripple” was ‘30s bluesman slang for a type of cocktail, but if that were true it would surely have popped up in at least one old blues song, cocktail manual or slang dictionary, which it didn’t.

Who would have guessed wild-ass ideas like light beer and flavored vodka would have taken hold as they have? Who would have bet money that a medicinal German liqueur would come to dominate the shot market? Some failures are more memorable than others, and below we feature a trio of prominent contenders that fought the good fight then went down with more noise than usual. But roll those dice they must, and for good reason. Designer vodkas flash and fade like hastily assembled boy bands new beer genres wail for attention then spiral silently down the drain strange liqueurs try to muscle their way into our shot glasses then scurry back to whatever faraway land they sprang from. The alcohol industry is forever foisting new “sensations” on the drinking public.

Red thunderbird drink