**Bottled:** Not sure how to interpret this lot code, but probably 2015. Definitely pre-2018 based on the label.
**Varietals:** Concord plus one or more unknown white grape varietals that might be Vinifera, and fortifying spirits distilled from citrus.
**Region:** New York
**Producer:** Constellation Brands at the time of bottling, now E&J Gallo
For some reason, it seems like hipsters are only interested in salt-of-the-earth working-class wine made from an ungrafted indigenous grape varietal and representative of a category that was formerly popular, but now moribund and in danger of extinction, when it’s the “famous” sous-voile amphora-aged biodynamic orange wine made in the village of Dumpsk, Ruritania from the Crapzhelnik grape and flown halfway across the world to be sold at Champagne prices. Well, what if I told you that there was a wine that checks all of those same niche wine geek boxes and could be purchased for pocket change at any ghetto liquor store? Yes, that’s right, as a Certified Masochist and hunter of all things both obscure and fortified, there was no way I was going to let the Last of the True Bum Wines evade my database of tasting notes.
Wild Irish Rose has been produced in New York since 1953 from a blend largely consisting of the grape the manufacturer calls “Lambrusco”, but which I am 99.9% certain is a misspelling of Labrusca, and fortified with cheaper citrus spirits rather than the more usual grape brandy. This wine is a “bastard”, an old slang term referring to cheap fortified wines that are considered inferior to imported varieties of “sack” like Sherry, and not just any bastard, but the kind of highly-manipulated, often artificially flavored and particularly cheap one that is usually termed a “bum wine”. Within the category of bum wines, which feature so prominently in so many people’s adolescent memories – or rather, the lack thereof – Wild Irish Rose is the only game in town these days. [Thunderbird has been relaunched](https://www.tbirdwine.com/) as yet another insipid, overripe Parkerised alcohol bomb of a table wine, MD 20/20 also lost its aguardente and got neutered to 13% ABV, Night Train Express went the way of real steam trains, Cisco “took you by surprise” one last time with its own discontinuation, and Wild Russian Vanya, Ripple and Sly Fox quietly disappeared decades ago. And does anyone here remember American Muscatel? That was another once-common domestic fortified style of higher quality which went from flying off the shelves in the middle of the 20th century to being EXTINCT by the start of the 21st, with no winery continuing to make it. So without further ado, let’s take a look at one of the last second-rate bastards that hasn’t bitten the dust:
**Nose:** Out of the bottle, there is a dry bouquet driven by a strong overtone of overflowing rubbish bin alongside stale beef broth and a more subdued but far less unpleasant yeast aroma. Some hints of cherry and citrus barely make it through the funk. Poured into the glass, it is unfortunately the same story with no new notes entering the scene.
**Taste:** The surprisingly light-bodied wine presents some more promising medium-sweet flavors of juicy strawberry and cherry in addition to fainter hints of cantaloupe and white grape at first, transitioning to a cranberry note complete with the same astringency you get eating real cranberries, but this is quickly underscored on the midpalate with a rather less impressive overtone of shredded paper and discarded aluminium cans baking in the sun. The wine exhibits insufficient acidity and is relatively disjointed, but is definitely not as bad as Meiomi in either of these respects.
**Finish:** The flavors on the main body first transition to a green vegetal note and a hint of tree sap, then into a savory note reminiscent of tonkotsu ramen, and then finally to the same hint of garbage odor detected on the nose. It’s not long, but certainly longer than I would prefer.
**Conclusion:** *Even though* it would be a *huge* understatement to describe this wine as having a bad reputation for flavor, I tasted it out of an old clear glass bottle that was likely past its prime and had been sitting in a liquor store for several years, and the flawed flavors I detected are highly consistent with online descriptions of “lightstrike”, meaning that it probably wasn’t quite as bad when it left the factory. I am therefore going to hold off on ranking it due to a suspected spoiled bottle, except to say that unless you can find a confirmed fresh bottle in your local store, it is worth upgrading to the higher-quality and more hardy “New York bastards” produced by the Taylor Wine Company, such as their Port and [Cream Sherry](https://www.reddit.com/r/wine/comments/10pp1rr/review_1_taylor_new_york_cream_sherry/), because the price difference is only a couple of dollars at most.
Still, I do not regret having tried this wine due to what it represents, and due to the fact that it is made from Concord. Because the Old World seems to have the production of Vitis vinifera wines locked down in terms of both absolute quality at the top end of the market and quality-price ratio at the bottom end of the market – even after import costs and importer markup are factored in – I will not be reviewing more typical wines from California and other American regions anytime soon. I am, however, highly interested in trying domestic wines that are either fermented dry or are both sweet and fortified (as opposed to flabby, sweet table wines), and which exhibit the varietal character of Muscadine, Concord, or other native grapes that simply aren’t grown in the Old World. Unfortunately, good examples of these wines seem to be hard to find via a web search, so I am very eager to hear any suggestions for pure indigenous wines that are made without post-fermentation sweetening and, preferrably, without chaptalisation.
wordofmouthrevisited
You are a gentleperson and a scholar. I found in working retail around 2008-2010 that the “bum wine” of choice switched over to saki as it became more readily available.
Impossible-Charity-4
Oh! Do Night Train next!
2h2o22h2o
TIL that citrus spirits are a thing. Yuck.
Viniferacity
This is a fun series.
sid_loves_wine
“the “famous” sous-voile amphora-aged biodynamic orange wine made in the village of Dumpsk, Ruritania from the Crapzhelnik grape and flown halfway across the world to be sold at Champagne prices”
I laughed. I think I’m starting to get the vibe of what you’re interested in really exploring, and I’m here for it lol
Fuddle
Please do Kelly’s, it’s and easy sipping wine with a touch of the Old Blarney
8 Comments
**Name:** Richard’s Wild Irish Rose Red
**Price:** $5.50
**Alcohol content:** 13.9%
**Bottled:** Not sure how to interpret this lot code, but probably 2015. Definitely pre-2018 based on the label.
**Varietals:** Concord plus one or more unknown white grape varietals that might be Vinifera, and fortifying spirits distilled from citrus.
**Region:** New York
**Producer:** Constellation Brands at the time of bottling, now E&J Gallo
For some reason, it seems like hipsters are only interested in salt-of-the-earth working-class wine made from an ungrafted indigenous grape varietal and representative of a category that was formerly popular, but now moribund and in danger of extinction, when it’s the “famous” sous-voile amphora-aged biodynamic orange wine made in the village of Dumpsk, Ruritania from the Crapzhelnik grape and flown halfway across the world to be sold at Champagne prices. Well, what if I told you that there was a wine that checks all of those same niche wine geek boxes and could be purchased for pocket change at any ghetto liquor store? Yes, that’s right, as a Certified Masochist and hunter of all things both obscure and fortified, there was no way I was going to let the Last of the True Bum Wines evade my database of tasting notes.
Wild Irish Rose has been produced in New York since 1953 from a blend largely consisting of the grape the manufacturer calls “Lambrusco”, but which I am 99.9% certain is a misspelling of Labrusca, and fortified with cheaper citrus spirits rather than the more usual grape brandy. This wine is a “bastard”, an old slang term referring to cheap fortified wines that are considered inferior to imported varieties of “sack” like Sherry, and not just any bastard, but the kind of highly-manipulated, often artificially flavored and particularly cheap one that is usually termed a “bum wine”. Within the category of bum wines, which feature so prominently in so many people’s adolescent memories – or rather, the lack thereof – Wild Irish Rose is the only game in town these days. [Thunderbird has been relaunched](https://www.tbirdwine.com/) as yet another insipid, overripe Parkerised alcohol bomb of a table wine, MD 20/20 also lost its aguardente and got neutered to 13% ABV, Night Train Express went the way of real steam trains, Cisco “took you by surprise” one last time with its own discontinuation, and Wild Russian Vanya, Ripple and Sly Fox quietly disappeared decades ago. And does anyone here remember American Muscatel? That was another once-common domestic fortified style of higher quality which went from flying off the shelves in the middle of the 20th century to being EXTINCT by the start of the 21st, with no winery continuing to make it. So without further ado, let’s take a look at one of the last second-rate bastards that hasn’t bitten the dust:
**Nose:** Out of the bottle, there is a dry bouquet driven by a strong overtone of overflowing rubbish bin alongside stale beef broth and a more subdued but far less unpleasant yeast aroma. Some hints of cherry and citrus barely make it through the funk. Poured into the glass, it is unfortunately the same story with no new notes entering the scene.
**Taste:** The surprisingly light-bodied wine presents some more promising medium-sweet flavors of juicy strawberry and cherry in addition to fainter hints of cantaloupe and white grape at first, transitioning to a cranberry note complete with the same astringency you get eating real cranberries, but this is quickly underscored on the midpalate with a rather less impressive overtone of shredded paper and discarded aluminium cans baking in the sun. The wine exhibits insufficient acidity and is relatively disjointed, but is definitely not as bad as Meiomi in either of these respects.
**Finish:** The flavors on the main body first transition to a green vegetal note and a hint of tree sap, then into a savory note reminiscent of tonkotsu ramen, and then finally to the same hint of garbage odor detected on the nose. It’s not long, but certainly longer than I would prefer.
**Conclusion:** *Even though* it would be a *huge* understatement to describe this wine as having a bad reputation for flavor, I tasted it out of an old clear glass bottle that was likely past its prime and had been sitting in a liquor store for several years, and the flawed flavors I detected are highly consistent with online descriptions of “lightstrike”, meaning that it probably wasn’t quite as bad when it left the factory. I am therefore going to hold off on ranking it due to a suspected spoiled bottle, except to say that unless you can find a confirmed fresh bottle in your local store, it is worth upgrading to the higher-quality and more hardy “New York bastards” produced by the Taylor Wine Company, such as their Port and [Cream Sherry](https://www.reddit.com/r/wine/comments/10pp1rr/review_1_taylor_new_york_cream_sherry/), because the price difference is only a couple of dollars at most.
Still, I do not regret having tried this wine due to what it represents, and due to the fact that it is made from Concord. Because the Old World seems to have the production of Vitis vinifera wines locked down in terms of both absolute quality at the top end of the market and quality-price ratio at the bottom end of the market – even after import costs and importer markup are factored in – I will not be reviewing more typical wines from California and other American regions anytime soon. I am, however, highly interested in trying domestic wines that are either fermented dry or are both sweet and fortified (as opposed to flabby, sweet table wines), and which exhibit the varietal character of Muscadine, Concord, or other native grapes that simply aren’t grown in the Old World. Unfortunately, good examples of these wines seem to be hard to find via a web search, so I am very eager to hear any suggestions for pure indigenous wines that are made without post-fermentation sweetening and, preferrably, without chaptalisation.
You are a gentleperson and a scholar. I found in working retail around 2008-2010 that the “bum wine” of choice switched over to saki as it became more readily available.
Oh! Do Night Train next!
TIL that citrus spirits are a thing. Yuck.
This is a fun series.
“the “famous” sous-voile amphora-aged biodynamic orange wine made in the village of Dumpsk, Ruritania from the Crapzhelnik grape and flown halfway across the world to be sold at Champagne prices”
I laughed. I think I’m starting to get the vibe of what you’re interested in really exploring, and I’m here for it lol
Please do Kelly’s, it’s and easy sipping wine with a touch of the Old Blarney
I was having flashbacks to [bumwine.com](http://www.bumwine.com/wildirishrose.html) seeing this one.