“[T]he open door to gay talk, easy laughter”: The 1933 California Burgundy Wine Beverage

During the last stretch of Prohibition in America at the beginning of 1933, numerous states voted to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment.  By the end of June 1933, California had voted for Repeal and the wine industry began to market very low alcohol wine beverages.  That very same month the Mission Dry Corporation came out with the carbonated, sweet “California Burgundy Wine Beverage” for $0.30 per bottle.

California Burgundy Wine Beverage Label. 1933. [1]

During the next month of July 1933, a large advertisement was titled “Want a new thrill? drink old bonded wine as the Europeans do”.  The advertisement claimed that this beverages “tastes like the fine old wine of pre-Prohibition days”.  It was meant to recreate the wine and seltzer drinks that continental Europeans drank in cafes.  This was, apparently, no fly by night drink for they “learned something from an old wine maker” in order to create it.  Little did they know that decades later, sparkling Burgundy would become a controversial recommendation for Thanksgiving dinner.

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[1] California Burgundy Wine Beverage Label. 6/27/1933. File Unit:
42323 – California Burgundy Wine Beverage by Mission Dry – Mission Dry Corporation, Ltd.  The National Archives. URL: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16972153?q=wine
[2]  Date: Friday, July 14, 1933 Paper: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) Page: 7