The Rise And Fall Of The Nostalgic Boone's Farm Drink

Ask today's wine lover what gets them excited and they'll likely wax poetic about the year's best natural wines. But ask people of a certain age about their favorite wine a few decades ago, and you'll hear one name repeatedly: Boone's Farm. There's even a fan club for the brand. It was cheap, it was unpretentious, it was fruit-flavored — not exactly a connoisseur's prized pick, but instead an accessible staple, essentially an entire generation's first boozy beverage. The nostalgia is real. Boone's Farm actually still exists today, so where did the love go? The brand debuted in 1961 from E. & J. Gallo, a major wine producer and distributor that's been around since 1933. To young people, it stood out from the comparatively stuffy wine their parents might have been drinking. 

Boone's Farm was lower in alcohol at around 5% to 7.5% ABV, and it was only $2 a bottle. Made entirely from fermented apple juice plus a whole lot of sugar, it could still technically be called wine, but had a sweeter, fruitier profile that soon blossomed into different flavor varieties (all with apple wine as the base) including Strawberry Hill, Wild Cherry, and Watermelon. Boone's Farm was a victim of its own success, though: People liked cheap, sweet alcohol. Other brands developed to quench that thirst, and consumers moved on to wine coolers and flavored malt beverages such as Zima, then Smirnoff Ice, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and so on, relegating Boone's Farm to more of a fond memory than a go-to drink.

Today, Boone's Farm would be referred to more vaguely as a "drink" than a "wine." There was an alcohol tax increase passed in 1991 that hit wine hard, and rather than pay higher taxes, Boone's Farm changed its entire formula to instead have a fermented malt beverage base, like that of the aforementioned Smirnoff Ice or today's hard seltzers. The brand then rolled out flavors such as Blue Hawaiian and Melon Ball, but its main audience — newly legal drinkers — now had dozens of options and seemed to prefer carbonated drinks in single-serve bottles. If you're a fan of any of today's best hard seltzer brands or popular canned cocktails, hard teas, etc., thank Boone's Farm. The brand's one-time ubiquity proved the purchasing power of younger imbibers and established an entire market catering to them with affordability and flavors. 

It's a trend that's currently booming. What's a shame is that Boone's Farm isn't getting a share of what it helped create. You can still buy it from places like BuyWinesOnline.com, but it seems to mostly live on in nostalgic Gen X Reddit threads about first alcoholic beverages. However, especially with today's flavor- and thrift-focused consumer, there's opportunity for a Boone's Farm comeback — there have been events at wine bars to introduce the next generation to the brand. There's no room for snobbiness these days. Even wine connoisseurs have favorite boxed-wine brands. Why not relive your youth or discover something fun and new with some Strawberry Hill?