Night Train Express

Last updated
Night Train Express
Type Flavored fortified wine
Manufacturer E. & J. Gallo Winery
Distributor E. & J. Gallo Winery
OriginUnited States
Alcohol by volume 17.5
Proof (US) 35
ColorRed

Night Train Express, typically referred to as just Night Train, was a discount, flavored fortified wine produced by E. & J. Gallo Winery in the United States. The wine typically contained 17.5% abv and was fortified with brandy to boost the abv. [1]

The wine was one of the products, along with Thunderbird, which helped Gallo become the top-selling winery in California and eventually the United States. [2]

Night Train, like all discount, fortified wines, was controversial amongst civic leaders in major cities who often claimed it contributed to vagrancy and public drunkenness of homeless people. [3] The wine has been described as a "cheap way to get drunk fast" [4] and "as usually hidden by brown bags on Tenderloin street corners." [5] Cities like San Francisco and Seattle banned the sale of Night Train in downtown and skid row areas. [6] In 1989, the Gallo winery, as the result of a federal court case, agreed to stop directly marketing Night Train in "skid row" neighborhoods. [1]

The wine inspired the song Nightrain on the album Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses. [7] It was repeatedly referenced in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers , most notably in a scene in which Joliet Jake finishes a bottle and later proclaims "That Night Train is a mean wine". [8]

The wine was discontinued in 2016. [9]

  1. 1 2 Mathews, Jay (22 September 1989). "GALLO, REACTING TO PRESSURE, HALTS CHEAP WINE SALES IN 'SKID ROW' AREAS". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  2. ↑ Humes, Edward (22 October 2013). A Man and his Mountain: The Everyman who Created Kendall-Jackson and Became AmericaÕs Greatest Wine Entrepreneur. PublicAffairs. p. 147. ISBN   978-1-61039-285-3 . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  3. ↑ Veseth, Mike (17 July 2013). Extreme Wine: Searching the World for the Best, the Worst, the Outrageously Cheap, the Insanely Overpriced, and the Undiscovered (19 ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   979-8-216-29753-6.
  4. ↑ Blackburn, Ian; Levine, Allison (21 April 2008). The Learning Annex Presents The Pleasure of Wine. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN   978-0-470-33324-2 . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  5. ↑ Holmes, Robert (26 December 2012). A Traveller's Wine Guide to California. Interlink Publishing. ISBN   978-1-62371-015-6 . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  6. ↑ Murakami, Kery (December 7, 1998). "Alcoholics finding way around ban". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2006-11-14.
  7. ↑ Popoff, Martin (17 June 2025). Guns N' Roses at 40. Motorbooks. p. 51. ISBN   978-0-7603-9399-4 . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  8. ↑ Martin, Scott C. (16 December 2014). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives. SAGE Publications. p. 1404. ISBN   978-1-4833-3108-9 . Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  9. ↑ Dent, Bryan. "Last Stop for Night Train Express". Modern Drunkard Magazine (63). Retrieved 17 October 2025.

See also

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