[MediaMole]

It’s still better than such Gallo mainstays as Night Train and Thunderbird.

[Rodney Dangerfield]

True story:

A friend of mine was a friend of former Oakland Raider John Matuszak.

“Tooz” used to save his expensive wine bottles and then fill them with crappy, cheap wine and serve it to his guests, mostly his teammates, who would compliment him on how good the wine is and what a great wine connoisseur he was.

I also met Tooz several times and the stories about his partying are way understated.

The guy put amounts of a certain powder up his nose that would’ve given Godzilla a heart attack.

He was actually a really nice guy when he was sober.
Soft spoken, very polite, a real gentleman.

But when he was drinking and doing drugs, he was a different person and not one you would want to be around, even if he was your best friend.

[Rodebrecht]

The history of Thunderbird is as interesting as the drunken effects the one experiences from the wine. When Prohibition ended, Ernest Gallo and his brothers Julio and Joe wanted to corner the young wine market. Earnest wanted the company to become "the Campbell Soup company of the wine industry" so he started selling Thunderbird in the ghettos around the country. Their radio adds featured a song that sang, "What's the word? / Thunderbird / How's it sold? / Good and cold / What's the jive? / Bird's alive / What's the price? / Thirty twice." It is said that Ernest once drove through a tough, inner city neighborhood and pulled over when he saw a bum. When Gallo rolled down his window and called out, "What's the word?" the immediate answer from the bum was, "Thunderbird."

http://www.bumwine.com/tbird.html