Buckfast symbolises everything that is good in us

Buckfast comes in a 75cl bottle. Like all good wines it has a wide base and a thin neck. The design is important when it comes to taking hearty swigs of the acidic, brown, cough syrup like fluid. The label is dated, seemingly unchanging. It is a mustard yellow, displaying all the vital information about the fine wine. Bottled by J. Chandler, made by the Benedictine monks of Devon, England, a red wine based aperitif (it is to be consumed with food) and, most importantly, “The name ‘Tonic Wine’ does not imply health giving or medicinal properties”.

Fuel of a people

Anyone from the extremities of the UK will now be saying, “Why are you telling me this? Sure I’ve been around Buckie since I was no age.” The reason being that despite being made in Devon, England, few outside of Scotland and Ireland have heard of the wine. How has a wine from the southern county of Devon reached such a cult status in regions so alien to its origin? And furthermore how does it grow in popularity despite having few positive qualities?

Being an acquired taste with a clumsy and juxtaposed bottle design and an apparently low alcoholic volume of 15 per cent it comes at a hefty price of, in and around, £8 a bottle.

Why do people buy the stuff?

The answer is its symbolism. Buckfast represents something. It is timeless, at its core unchanged, a counter to pop culture, unapologetic for its appearance and taste. It gains customers not through clever advertising campaigns, re-branding, or annoying 12 second YouTube adverts showing successful 20 somethings laughing over a glass as some posh pub. Buckfast gains its customers through word of mouth, oral tradition, and a preceding reputation. If you want a party, Buckfast Tonic Wine can give it to you.

Buckfast gets ya fucked fast

Having said this, at 15 per cent alchohol, less than half of most vodkas, one bottle surely can’t get seasoned drinkers up and ready for a good night. How can Buckfast bring the party?

Well, with a caffeine content equivalent of eight tins of coke residing inside the green bottle – that’s more caffeine per millilitre than red bull. This combination of alcohol and caffeine offers up a very unique form of inebriation.

Consider it. High energy, lower critical thinking (i.e. more happiness). Sounds like the perfect mix for any modern club-hungry fun-loving guy.

And it’s this perfect mix, and Buckfast’s loyal fan base that has allowed the tonic to expand, and offer more “Buck” for your buck. It is now offered in bottles and tins, while furthering its reaches to areas outside of The United Kingdom and Ireland the company only last month announcing it is offering canned wine in New Zealand.

Outside of the facts, and the outsider’s view of the wine, we asked regular tonic drinkers about their experience with the drink, and why they love it.

Dressing like a tit isn’t normal, on Buckfast it is

Danny Murdock, second year Accountant at Queen’s University Belfast says: “The sound of the lid cracking open resonates with me on a whole other spiritual level. It holds a plethora of caffeine that, not only kicks a carryout into gear, but also makes it that bit easier jumping out of bed the next morning for your 9AM lecture. I like the sound of the air bubbles at the narrow end of the neck when you tilt to guzzle.”

Caolán Daly, third year Music Technology, also at Queen’s recounts the multiple monikers associated with the wine: “There’s wreck wreck smash juice, bottle of bo, purple wine, plorple wine, green trumpet, unholy water, bottle of brown, smelly canal water, brown diesel, tonic the hedgehog, and wreck the hoose joose.”

When asked the appeal, Shane Fegan, second year Creative Practice at Ulster University said: “Because it’s the blood of Christ that’s why.”