When Kazaxia spotted this intriguing headline ‘Thunderbird expands to Kazakhstan‘, it immediately invoked distant memories of teenage parties and getting hammered on the notorious American drink Thunderbird. Described politely as ‘a low-end fortified wine’ this noxious mix of chemicals was well-known as a quick fire route to oblivion.
A bottle of Thunderbird in its natural setting (image taken from bumwine.com)
It was with interest that Kazaxia clicked on to the link to the headline – was this really an attempt by E&J Gallo Winery, the makers of this interesting drinking experience, to break the stranglehold of vodka and cheap port wine as the drink of choice for Kazakhstan’s down and outs?
Alas for Central Asia’s winos, it was not to be as this Thunderbird turned out to be merely a management training company. Or maybe not …
The bumwine website describes Thunderbird wine as
If your taste buds are shot, and you need to get trashed with a quickness, then “T-bird” is the drink for you. Or, if you like to smell your hand after pumping gas, look no further than Thunderbird. As you drink on, the bird soars higher while you sink lower.
Kazaxia contacted Lord Venal on the subject of Thunderbird and he waxed lyrical about his misspent youth spent on park benches drinking the wino’s favourite tipple.
I vaguely remember climbing out of the window of my boarding school and making for the village shop where I’d buy a bottle of Thunderbird and proceed to get well and truly ratarsed.
recalled the sometime election observer.
When my eye started twitching, I decided it was time to call it a day and moved on to more respectable tipples.
The good lord expressed surprise that it was actually a training organisation and wondered whether it would be interested in funding a trip to monitor the upcoming elections in Kyrgyzstan, maybe in a tie-up with the E&J Gallo Winery?
Kazaxia 
Leave a Reply