Not wine at all, similar to Dr. Pepper both being cherry based soft drinks. Originally from North Carolina but now sold throughout the Southeast.

New England has a specific regional soft drink also, ‘Moxie’. Another old time drink, Moxie made famous by the Mad Magazine jokes and the old expression ‘show some Moxie’.

Why ‘show some Moxie’ ? It is basically a rebranded paint remover that only a few die hard Yankees would consider putting in their mouth. We have a few in my family and a can or two show up once in a while. Below is a good description.

Wikipedia;

‘Moxie is a brand of carbonated beverage that is among the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It was created around 1876 by Augustin Thompson as a patent medicine called “Moxie Nerve Food” and was produced in Lowell, Massachusetts. The sweet soda is similar to root beer, with a (really) bitter aftertaste and is flavored with gentian root extract, an extremely bitter substance commonly used in herbal medicine.’

Given a choice which would you choose, Cherry Soda or Benzene.

Just sayin.