The Wine Curmudgeon's recent foray into sweet red wine brought Riunite to mind, which those of us of a certain age will remember (how fondly depends, of course, on how much Riunite one drank in those days). Riunite was one of the first sweet reds, but even then, it wasn't polite to call the wine sweet -- it was "soft."
YouTube has a surprising number of vintage Riunite commercials, as well as a bunch that re-do the brand for more modern sensibilities (part of a program called Riunite Reinvented that the producer held several years ago). The older commercials, most from the early 1980s, sport a bouncy, Gloria Gaynor beat; some incredibe late 1970s clothing styles; and the infamous jingle, which worms its way into your head like a computer virus.
I chose this commerical (courtesy of DrMagic) mostly because it was a bit different -- wine and food pairings were not exactly common back then. Wine with tacos? But if you want to see any of the others, in all their well-scrubbed, hard-smiling model glory, do a YouTube search for "Riunite commercial." Because it is so nice.
Might we have to O.W.C. (Occupy Wine Curmudgeon) to get equal time for the iconic Lambrusco huckster, Aldo Cella?
http://goo.gl/rPhoY
Posted by: Alfonso | March 23, 2012 at 07:12 AM
As much as I have always admired Aldo's way with women (to say nothing of his white suit), he is plugging sweet white wine. I'll keep him in mind when I do the sweet white epic.
Posted by: Jeff Siegel | March 23, 2012 at 07:27 AM
Ruinite. Those were the days. No middle america wine list was safe if it didn't have Ruinite, Blue Nun, Mateus, and Lancer's.
We used to refer to Riunite as Ruin-ite.
Posted by: bburnsey | March 23, 2012 at 01:51 PM
Thankfully, Aldo Cella was no slave to fashion ...
Where have all the great wine commercials gone?
Posted by: Joe Janish | March 28, 2012 at 11:03 AM