Prohibition & Wine Bricks

TomHill · August 26, 2015, 12:21pm

A rather interesting article:
WineBricks

on the popularity of wine bricks during Prohibition.

Anybody have a TN on the Burgundy wine brick wine??
Tom

Ken_Zinns · August 26, 2015, 12:50pm

Yup, I’ve visited a number of wineries and growers (including Beringer) that got through Prohibition this way. “Caution: Will Ferment and Turn into Wine” - wouldn’t want that to happen!

Kyle_Schlachter · August 26, 2015, 1:00pm

If anyone has TNs, I’d expect you Tom as I’d guess you follow wine bricks from the very start!

TomHill · August 26, 2015, 1:10pm

Nope, Kyle…just a tad bit before my time. But I can just imagine, given the ubiquity of wine bricks, that there must be
some memorbilia shop somewhere in this Nation, that has one for sale. If I find one, I’ll follow the directions I’m not
supposed to and post a TN.
Tom

thomasP · August 26, 2015, 1:38pm

The VineGlo operation sent people out to homes to set them up for fermentation, etc. That was not legal, and it ultimately led to a court case. VineGlo was later yanked from the market, but it was not prosecuted for the activity, because it was difficult for law enforcers to figure out how to prosecute when the resulting wine never left the buyer’s home, which was legal.

Side issue: When my publisher submitted my Taylor, New York book manuscript (Taylor became quite wealthy thanks to Prohibition) for others to read and comment before publishing it, one nasty, strident person who was as much wrong as he was correct in his notes (I valued the times he was correct), many times said I didn’t know what I was talking about; one of those times was when I mentioned wine bricks. He claimed they never existed.

The juices were labeled wine types. The Taylor company went further and labeled each of its Wine Type with the name of which wine an individual juice represented: Burgundy, Rhine, etc.

TomHill · August 26, 2015, 1:41pm

thomasP:

TomHill:

A rather interesting article:
WineBricks

on the popularity of wine bricks during Prohibition.

Anybody have a TN on the Burgundy wine brick wine??
Tom

The VineGlo operation sent people out to homes to set them up for fermentation, etc. That was not legal, and it ultimately led to a court case. VineGlo was later yanked from the market, but it was not prosecuted for the activity, because it was difficult for law enforcers to figure out how to prosecute when the resulting wine never left the buyer’s home, which was legal.

Side issue: When my publisher submitted my Taylor, New York book manuscript (Taylor became quite wealthy thanks to Prohibition) for others to read and comment before publishing it, one nasty, strident person who was as much wrong as he was correct in his notes (I valued the times he was correct), many times said I didn’t know what I was talking about; one of those times was when I mentioned wine bricks. He claimed they never existed.

The juices were labeled wine types. The Taylor company went further and labeled each of its Wine Type with the name of which wine an individual juice represented: Burgundy, Rhine, etc.

Thanks, Thomas. Interesting insight. If one could find one of those bricks, do you suppose we could still make a wine from them??
Tom

Drew_Goin · August 26, 2015, 1:49pm

I had heard of malt syrup sold during Prohibition for home beer-making, but this is news to me!

thomasP · August 26, 2015, 2:03pm

TomHill:

thomasP:

TomHill:

A rather interesting article:
WineBricks

on the popularity of wine bricks during Prohibition.

Anybody have a TN on the Burgundy wine brick wine??
Tom

The VineGlo operation sent people out to homes to set them up for fermentation, etc. That was not legal, and it ultimately led to a court case. VineGlo was later yanked from the market, but it was not prosecuted for the activity, because it was difficult for law enforcers to figure out how to prosecute when the resulting wine never left the buyer’s home, which was legal.

Side issue: When my publisher submitted my Taylor, New York book manuscript (Taylor became quite wealthy thanks to Prohibition) for others to read and comment before publishing it, one nasty, strident person who was as much wrong as he was correct in his notes (I valued the times he was correct), many times said I didn’t know what I was talking about; one of those times was when I mentioned wine bricks. He claimed they never existed.

The juices were labeled wine types. The Taylor company went further and labeled each of its Wine Type with the name of which wine an individual juice represented: Burgundy, Rhine, etc.

Thanks, Thomas. Interesting insight. If one could find one of those bricks, do you suppose we could still make a wine from them??
Tom

I am certain someone, somewhere in this country has one of those bricks hidden away, or maybe in a museum. I’m less certain whether it would be usable. Now you’ve opened a new geeky discussion: how do wine bricks age?