Photo is from Milwaukee in 1943. Notice the billboard. The brand still exists, but not under its orginal ownership.
Coppola tried this brand for awhile, it didn’t go well.
The fact that it even still exists I find interesting. Apparently it was a very popular wine after prohibition through the 30’s and 40’s.
It used to be based around the Scuppernong grape in the pre prohibition days, they would blend in some CA and NY grapes too but the Scuppernong was the predominant flavor. The wineries making it had 10 million gallons of capacity pre prohibition. I think most of the California wine they blended in was from Cucamonga at that time.
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I always wondered what people drank back in the day from domestic sources.
Trivia:
Virginia Dare was a San Fran band just prior to the big tech takeover of SF when there was still a vibrant local music scene. An offshoot of the earlier band the Wannabe Texans.
Virginia Dare was once the #1 selling wine in the United States. It was a sherry styled wine made from Muscadine grapes. Still quite a bit of Muscadine grapes planted in North Carolina (where Virginia Dare originated from).
I thought Coppola still owned the label? I tasted through the wines at the old Souvereign winery a few years ago,they were simple, grocery store wines.
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Hi Thomas, were those the post prohibition versions that were based on Palomino? I know it’s been said that the Scuppernong flavor was less in later versions. It’s a brand that’s been through lots of changes and purchases over the last 100 some years obviously.
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I’m sorry Matt, I meant Muscadine grapes. Looking back at my notes from a trip to North Carolina wine country I ran into a lot of older Muscadine vineyards. Or as the locals used to called it; Scuppernong.
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