bear with me on this. I take the long way around, but this is ultimately about Boone's Farm wines.
I never had a Boone's Farm phase in my life, but I did drink Mad Dog as a freshman in college.
there's no way drinking Mad Dog would bring back anything pleasant.
I became a wine nut (not snob, though) in 1995 when I took my first job, teaching music in the Finger Lake region of NY State. My first wines were Swedish Hill, Dr. Franks, Glenora, Trealeaven at King Ferry Winery, Bully Hill (for the "fun wines") and Hermann J. Weinmar. That was an excellent introduction into the world of wine - Beginning mostly with white wines such as Chardonay, Pinot Blanc, Seyval and, og course, Reislings but also experiencing some good Cabernet Francs and Pinot Noirs.
My initialtion into reds were wines from Australia and South America, but I wasn't blown away by anything coming out of those areas at that time (which was the beginning of the wine boom).
Later, as I explored red wines, CA hit my radar with Merlots and Zins, and a trip to Sonoma gave me even furthur insight into Zinfandels (old vine zin is one of my favorite reds), Merlots, Pinot Noirs, and a host of others. And trade agreements with South America has brought in some wines from the better wineries of Argentina and Chile and I would finally have a Melbec I could nash my teeth into.
So, where does Boone Farm fit in to this, well, early on during my wine awakening, (which is still expanding - since I've only been a wine enthusiast for 13 years) my in-laws decided that they too would get into wine. My mother in-law had a previous appreciation of Italian wines several decades ago when she was still single and travelled to Europe. But, they really weren't wine drinkers at this point.
One Thanksgiving, Boone's Farm was on the table. My father-in-law got wine, knowing I was a wine drinker. I did not openly protest in the least. But, later on that evening, my wife mentioned that Bully Hill is a NY winery, and while it is more expensive than Boone's, it's very palatable, goes well with meals or for sipping, and suggested that they should think about supporting the NY State wine industry.
Well, her tact worked. Although they tried Arbor Mist first, they did settle on Bully Hill by Winter's end, and by the next Thanksgiving, Dr. Frank's Reisling was on the table. For reds, they decided on Italian wines because of my mother-in-law's past. They definately know more than me about Italian reds, because I feel like I'm still exploring California (even if it's just at my local wine shop). But it's fun for us to complare reds and we have the same tastes in white to come back to. (We also did start a tradition of having beaujolais nouveau on Thanksgiving...along with Chianti)
So, as a lark, I bought a bottle of Boone's a couple years back on a golf outting - surprising my father-in-law with the bottle. We opened it, and poured a half glass for each (it was afterall - 9AM). "Man, this is really #hitty wine," he exclaims, "but, it's not THAT bad of a drink."
