What's the first "wine" you ever drank?

[JimHow]

Me, Boones Farm Apple, circa 1975.

[OrlandoRobert]

My folks always had wine at the dinner table, and my sister and I partook, but my first real memory of what I drank was a Johannisberg Riesling at the Melting Pot. Circa 1983. That was my go-to spot in college to impress the ladies.

[JimHow]

By 1979 I was drinking Bordeaux from the cellars of Christ's College at Cambridge University in England, but it wasn't til that memorable 1986 Chateau de Lamarque in Montreal, in what, 1997(?), that the earth moved....

[Blanquito]

The first wine that entered the consciousness for me and my high school buddies was J. Roget “American Champagne”. We didn’t like beer or hooch yet, but off-dry bubbly was an easy gateway beverage. Plus, it was super cheap but the fizz made it seem fancy, and the girls liked it too. It was basically a bubbly wine cooler though and it gave horrible hangovers.

[jal]

Israeli wines were horrible in the 70s when I was in high school. Sweet and disgusting. It wasn't until I got to NYC in the early eighties that I discovered Mouton Cadet and Chianti Ruffino.

The ads on tv then were:
Riunite on Ice - That's nice
Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time
There's more than wine in a bottle of Bolla

[PghMike]

I believe mine would be Riunite Lambrusco. A true classic.

[William P]

It depends how you define wine. First "wine" was Spenada which was probably not defined as a wine by today's standard. In the late 60's it was a high school party favorite.

First epiphany wine was a Puligny-Montrachet I drank with the senior partners of my firm circa 1976 in a restaurant on Broadway in San Francisco. It was downhill from there.

[Nicklasss]

From my father wine glass, the Fontana di Papa white.

[DavidG]

Manischewitz at the Passover table.

First without parental supervision was Annie Greensprings on an overnight canoe trip from summer camp. Can’t see camp counselors doing that in this day and age.

[stefan]

Whatever the sister put out for the priest to turn into blood. Probably it got better after transubstantiation.

[JimHow]

Oh that's right, we were drinking the actual blood of Christ as school children at St. Patrick's Elementary School in Lewiston, Maine.

[Racer Chris]

I mostly remember Almaden and Mateus bottles at the dinner table in the late '60s - early '70s, and I'm sure there were others as well. It wasn't unusual for the older children to get a taste.
The first wine I remember buying to drink is Reunite. I also bought Carlo Rossi gallon jugs, more for cooking than drinking, and a fair amount of dry white wine produced in Connecticut.

[Blanquito]

My wine epiphany was several bottles of 78 Lascombes my dad opened at Thanksgivings when I was around 20 years old. Not sure what I’d think of those bottles now, but at the time they were mesmerizingly complex and silky, replete with seductive Margauxberries.

[stefan]

Wow, Jim! Our priests always drained the chalice after working The Miracle, so us acolytes only got the stuff from the bottle. Maybe your priests were less vampiresh.

[dstgolf]

High school party favourite Mateus. A few facts about Mateus from Wikipedia that I found interesting!

Cultural significance
Mateus rosé was among the alcoholic beverages which were stockpiled in the cellars of Saddam Hussein's palaces.[6]
It is a preferred wine of Queen Elizabeth II (as of 1999).[7]
The wine is mentioned in the lyrics of the Elton John song, Social Disease (1973): "I get juiced on Mateus and just hang loose."[8]
A bottle of Mateus can be seen in the cover photograph of Graham Nash's 1973 album Wild Tales, positioned on the mantelpiece just behind Nash's head.[9]
In Mike Sager's May 1989 Los Angeles Times article "The Devil and John Holmes", the late porn star's ex-wife Sharon confides: "On their first date, he'd brought a bottle of Mateus and a handful of flowers. Sharon had watched through the window as he picked them from a neighbor's front yard."[10]
In the 1978 film, Animal House, at the home of English professor Professor Dave Jennings (Donald Sutherland), where some "grass" is to be consumed, a Mateus bottle is seen being used as a candle-holder.[citation needed]
In 1977, Frontier Airlines featured complimentary Mateus wine as part of its meal service on selected flights and advertised this fact.[11]
Professional wrestler André the Giant was said to drink six bottles of Mateus wine before a match.[12]
During the Cold War period, Mateus wine became one of the most drunk wines of the American army. Its soldiers are told to be one of the main evangelists of Mateus in markets in the Far East, as in Vietnam.[13]

[stefan]

We really did pronounce Mateus to rhyme with goose!

[Dionysus]

Does Blue Nun even qualify as a wine?
If yes, then Blue Nun, circa 1999 - not an experience worth sharing

[RPCV]

The ever popular Mateus Rose in the iconic bottle

[Winona Chief]

As I can best remember, Mateus Rose is probably the first wine I drank. Other early wines include various Almaden.

First good wines were German Riesling from Bell Wine in DC in 1974-1976.

First good red wines were 1970 Lascombes and Chateau Gloria - blew away everything else at a New Year’s Eve blind tasting (I think this was December 31, 1976).

Chris Bublitz

[gene m.]

Andre Cold Duck and Boones Farm (apple, before strawberry hill) in Spring 1970 drive in movie showing of Woodstock in Shalimar, Fl.
They had a "battle of the bands" in the parking lot and Cold Duck/Boone's farm being passed around. I bummed a ride on the back of my brothers Honda 90 scooter.

1st wines I bought (well my brother or some airman got it,) and drank: Lancer's Rose in 70 or 71
1st wine I ordered at a restaurant was for high school homecoming dinner for my date (I think it was a Ingelnook or Stags Leap) in 72

1st memorable BDX was a Pichon Baron or Rausan Segla from ABC Liqour in Gainesville, @ U of F as a Junior transfer in 76