Jug Wine

[quijote]

Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I'm kind of fascinated by the jug wine marketing and popularity phenomenon in North America. Who are the major producers and what are the major brands? (Or what book or website will provide this info?)

Are there any bottled wines (is the term "table wines"?) that outsell jug wines in the U.S, or North America? Are jug wines declining in popularity and market share? Are bottled (table) wines gaining? Where do I look for this info?

Are there any jug wines that are competitive in taste with certain bottled wines? (I guess there are some brands like Sutter Home and Glen Ellen that are kind of like bottled jug wine. Or is it incorrect to say that?)

I dunno, I guess it's sort of like old diners and doughnut shops; there's just something about jug wines....

On the Carlo Rossi website (yes, I looked), they claim that the jug concept is supposed to allude to the Italian countryside--peasants collecting locally made wine in large amphorae, and the like. I like the romance of that idea, but much of the low-end "country" wine I had in Italy was pretty horrid.

Anyway.... References? Comments?

[randery]

Its interesting, Q. I'll bet many of us have more prominent childhood recollections of the wine jug than the claret or burgundy bottle. I know my cradle was crowded with both half and full gallons of the swill!!

[This message has been edited by randery (edited 11-01-2003).]

[Innkeeper]

Jug wine used to be cheap wine. Carlo Rossi certainly still fills that bill. However, in this era of Two Buck Chuck and the like, the picture is muddied. When you can get Crow Canyon Cabernet and Syrah from Roberto for less than $5, who needs jug wine!

[This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 11-01-2003).]

[quijote]

Yes, Randery, I still have memories of those gallons of Gallo from home, years ago...and more recent memories of a colleague opening his kitchen closet, with the result of several jugs of wine rolling onto the floor!

IK, your point is well taken, and that's sort of why I ask. It seems that good, quaffable wine is more readily available at very low prices and also in greater quantities. Some current colleagues of mine, for example, bring very large bottles of Concha y Toro Frontera wines to parties, and I've even seen big bottles of French Chardonnay (Barton et Gest?). I wonder if wines such as these are significantly taking market share from the big jugs?

[Innkeeper]

There are many wines of various quality bottled in 1.5 liter bottles. There is very little available in the gallon jugs such as Carlo Rossi. Now, boxes, that is another story. Most of what is available right now in boxes is vintage jug. However there are efforts in both California and Australia to get quality wine into boxes.

[Thomas]

The so-called jug wine market has been shrinking in America for a few years now, it having been pushed aside by, as IK says, the inexpensive 750ml wines. Also, Americans are ever-so-slightly moving up in their wine buying habits.

You can likely get some hard numbers from the Wine Institute out of California.

[Tyrrell]

One Jug wine curiosity that I've consumed (a little over a decade ago when I was an undergraduate.) was a jug wine called Sangria (it could have been Carlo Rossi). Did it really have fruit juice in it like the sangria that is spoken about on these boards or was it just cheap red wine pretending to be spanish?

[Innkeeper]

Bottled Sangria (still available) has wine and fruit juice in it just like homemade.

[Kcwhippet]

Sounds like Arbor Mist.

[Innkeeper]

All I've ever done with it, and it has been a long time, is mix it with ginger ale for a homemade wine cooler.