Near Clove Rd in the Town of Schodack NY In a small wooded area just off the highway I discovered what appeared to be an old wine bottle. It's obscured and deeply faded label , what was left of it was of a blueish tint. It was not intact , just the upper portion of the bottle was found. After checking out the internet and looking for a corresponding picture I do believe I know what it was. An old broken bottle of Balli Hai wine. It did spark a memory. This wine I believe made by Gallo was an inexpensive wine or in other words cheap. Sold in pints and quarts. This was sold in the late sixties through much of the seventies. It was of the old " Pop Wine" movement to lure younger people and wine drinkers whose taste had not moved to a more dry taste in wines. Very Fruity , quite light. To use an old parlance , it was chuggable. Since yes I did partake of this variety of wine let me say it had tastes of peaches , strawberry , a hint of apple.and but of course grape. Very sweet aftertaste. It was a wine for newbies but surprisingly more adults drank it than one might assume. It was advertised on TV in the late sixties as a sort of taste of the East. Some House Parties used it as a base for an early American Waspy version of Sangria. You have to remember.......America was still in the process of discovering wine and it was not as widely consumed as it is today. There were not very many boutique wineries as there is today as well. Gallo or Taylor were the big producers. For anyone wishing to sample what it may have tasted like I have been informed that a wine called Frutezia is the closest one can come to it today. As for me my last taste was at the Powder Ridge Music Festival in July of 1970 in Connecticut. So , perhaps a quick disposal of an old bottle led to it being chucked into this wooded area that I would many years later dig into after it had become more overgrown. and three quarter buried. My thanks to Ted Franconis , a favored bartender and Kimberly Peacock of the Tousey Winery for some assistance in writing this blog
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i'm 67. When I was 18, my father was the juvenile officer in our small town. When me and my buddies were busted for drinking, we were brought down to the station , to the embarrassment of my father. One of his fellow officers (officer North), that I knew because he moonlighted at " the big R" dept store where I was a stock boy, took me to the side and asked me "why don't you do your drinking at the drive in like everybody else"? About 2 months later as I was driving in my 64 Chevelle Malibu, I saw the lights in my rear view mirror. It was a cop pulling me over for speeding! It was Officer North. I had a six pack of Schlitz malt liquor and a bottle of Bali hai wine in the back seat. He leaned in through the window and I saw him looking at the booz in the back seat. " where are you going" he asked...without hesitation I answered as if I was reading a script.. "I'M PICKING UP MY GIRLFRIEND,WERE GOING TO THE DRIVE IN"......His reply? "well don't speed" With that he walked away and left me with a memory of when cops were cool! That was 49 years ago and I only wish I could give my wife (the girl I was taking to the drive in) a bottle of bali hai wine on our 50th!
Excellent story Unknown. If I remember correctly back to my youth I used to do some of my drinking at The Auto Vision Drive In in East Greenbush NY. 30 yrs has gone by rather quickly.
Oh boy! Bali Hai wine. Watched the moon landing in1969. Spent the rest of the night on the cold bathroom floor. Never again!!
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