Francais | English | Espanõl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Night Train Express (usually abbreviated to Night Train) is the brand name of an inexpensive fortified wine sold in the United States. The wine typically contains 17.5% abv.

The wine is manufactured by the E & J Gallo Winery, and is one of the products, along with Thunderbird, which formed a large part of the company's sales in early days. Although not listed on their website, the winery will acknowledge its existence and send a list of liquor stores selling the wine through email.

Night Train Express has been a very controversial brand amongst civic leaders in major cities as it is felt that Night Train, as well as other inexpensive high liquor content drinks, contribute to vagrancy and public drunkenness of homeless people. Cities like San Francisco and Seattle have banned the sale of Night Train in downtown and skid row areas. <ref name="seattlepir">Murakami, Kery. "Alcoholics finding way around ban", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 7, 1998. Retrieved on 2006-11-14.</ref>

The hard rock band Guns N' Roses wrote a song about the wine, and songs by indie rock bands Heatmiser and Jawbreaker contain passing references to the drink. The Von Bondies recorded a song named after the drink.

[edit] Popular Culture

• The hard rock band Guns N' Roses wrote a song, Nightrain, about the wine. E & J Gallo Winery contacted the band after the song's release to inform them that they should have paid for the right to use the Night Train brand name (it is believed the song title was contracted to Nightrain in an attempt to get around this). The company later decided they would accept the 300% increase in sales triggered by the song as an alternative payment.
• Songs by indie rock bands Heatmiser and Jawbreaker contain passing references to the drink
• The Von Bondies recorded a song named after the drink
• In the movie Blues Brothers, Jake "Joliet" Blues commented before their show at the Palace Hotel that "That Night Train is a mean wine......."

[edit] See also

• Bum wine

[edit] References and external links

<references/>

• E. & J. Gallo Winery's website
• bumwine.com review
• Night Train on ghettowine.com