The top 8 wine TV ads, Part One Wine advertising has its many clichés, but typically they’re relegated to the realm of print. (And as people who still put words onto paper each day, don’t think we don’t appreciate that.) So it’s easy to forget that wine has been touted on television for nearly as long as there’s been television. The recent revival of this practice, with TV spots from Freixenet and the like, is a welcome sight. But it sent me straight back to YouTube in a hunt for some of the best wine-related spots over the decades. Today and early next week I’ll roll out my top eight picks.  Let me know some of yours. You’ll notice they’re dominated by large wine concerns, notably Gallo — which alone deserves an award for so enriching the wine culture with these. Some people say wine on TV is boring. I say: Here’s how it’s done. 8 ) “Fine French Wines,” Alexis Lichine Alexis Lichine was a legend in the wine industry, “the pope of wine” by some telling and along with Frank Schoonmaker probably responsible for introducing an enormous swath of America to French wine.

But like many wine figures he also used his name to push some more everyday bottles, including this line — which presumably dates from the early 1970s. (Note the 1969 vintage date.) What you should note in particular is the glassware: the Rosé d’Anjou in a beer stein, the Pouilly-Fuissé in what appears to be a mod martini glass and what I assume is Beaujolais in a shot glass. best italian wines ukDude, body shots of Beaujolais!!best kindle books on wine Oh, and the tagline: “Life without wine is no life at all.”red wine glass luxury I am so getting that tattooed somewhere personal.buying wine online in india

7) “Drinks Like Chablis,” Gallo I don’t know exactly what went into Gallo Pink Chablis — probably some Grenache — but the very prospect of Pink Chablis is so bizarre, in a true Chablis context, as to surpass silly and move straight to brilliant. glass of wine healthy or notI don’t even know how to get my head around that.best wines in texas Toss in a lute player, some gaudy headgear and art direction worthy of a Renaissance fair produced by Bob Guccione (take that, “Caligula”) and you have an ad fit for a king. Or at least a really trashy princess whose dubbing skills need some work. 6) “Eating and Dining,” Christian Brothers Quite a number of prominent California labels have fallen from grace. And one of the big ones would be Christian Brothers, once a defining North Coast presence and now mostly a vehicle for cheap brandy.

There was a certain je ne sais quoi snobbishness about a lot of wine advertising, none more than the Paul Masson ads helmed by Orson Wells. (We’ll get to those later.) But anything you might have found snobbish about Mr. Wells doing his thing?  This ad will make you forget it all. In a mere 30 seconds, it might hit every pretentious wine trope ever conceived. No longer will I say that I’m not merely eating. 5) “Loving Care,” Gallo Proof that silly wine tropes have always been with us, certainly since the 1950s. The only thing better in this would be if Paul Robeson had appeared.  And the jingle’s even better than the one in this Gallo ad, which I’d love to see revived as a mashup with the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ “Ghost of Stephen Foster.” Of course there’s also this Gallo ad, which needs only two words of introduction: Ripple. We’ll reconvene next week for the top four.“Equestrianism” — nice chaps Nice casting on Fräulein Fickmeister.

Slo Down’s press note: SLO Down wines is a small winemaker in the heart of California’s wine country. But their attitude is very different from the rest of the stuffy wine industry. They believe wine should be for everyone, the 99%, not just the elites. And while everyone knows the concept of “wine pairings,” the guys at SLO Down have a very different take on what their wine goes great with. This campaign is a series of short films that shows suggested and suggestive pairings for what their wine goes great with. Sexual Chocolate is a true California wine, blending old vine Zinfandel from Napa’s Howell Mountain with northern California Syrah and Petit Syrah. “Brandon Allen” is either a terrible actor, or he is actually a winemaker at Slo Down. If he is associated with the wine, bravo for sporting the thong (see ad below, or maybe not). The spots could have been sleazier, and funnier, though. Here’s a third, not-sleazy spot, “Horticulture,” that courts the stoner demo.

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