Anheuser Busch Wine

     I have become a wine lover over the years, in fact my buddy John and I opened up a website to sell wine accessories (9 years) which is now closed.  I have enjoyed wine for many years and if you read my previous article you also know about my budget box bargain shopping years so now you will see where AB Wine was another of my amazing finds.

     As I stated in my Budget Box Bargain article I would search the Saturday ads for interesting items that peeked my interest.  On one of these Saturdays I found some one selling Anheuser Busch Wine.  I had never heard of AB wine so I called to see if the wine was still available before I drove to South Saint Louis, It was.

     I had a lot of questions for the guy selling the wine but he did a good job answering them all.  He was selling the whole case of 12 (1/2 bottles) with the box for $20, I think (I don’t remember the exact price).  These were sample bottles given out when AB was first started dabbling in the wine market.  The seller was a former AB employee and had collected many AB products, this being one but he was scaling down his collection and the AB Wine was one of the first things to go.  I bought the AB wine (vintage 1985) then did some research on AB wine but found very little about it, so I just considered this to be a unique story with some AB wine I could display in my wine cellar.

     Just this past weekend we went down to AB for a tour and after the tour I ask the our guide what she knew about AB Wine but she was unaware of any such product and said I should go to the AB history museum on the property in the old schoolhouse to see if they could answer any questions.  I didn’t have time that day so I will make sure I visit them in the future.

     I did another Internet search yesterday and found quite bit of information on Master Cellars.  AB wine was to be sold under the name Master Cellars produced under Busch specifications by M. Lamont Winery of Di Giorgio, California, a subsidiary of John Labatt LTD of Ontario, Canada.   According to an article I recently read in Lodi News Sentinel (June 18, 1982), this wine was to be distributed to only restaurants and bars.  Apparently, AB decided against distributing wine and stuck with what they knew best.

     I don’t know if there is any value in the 9 remaining bottles I have (gave 3 away) but it’s definitely an interesting decoration in my wine cellar.  I’ll write an update if anything comes about that I think would be interesting.