Talk:Buckfast Tonic Wine

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[edit] Incorrect, and unvalidated Information

One of the writers from this page is obviously from Coatbridge, and is trying to put a more cool spin on Coatbridge by referring to it, as the "Buckfast Capital" without any reference to such a quote. Most Monklands area is the same place with no real boundary. Airdrie & Coatbridge are pretty much indistuingishable as seperate towns, so any attempt to try and claim "Coatbridge" alone as a capital is erroneous. Please support your quote or leave it out of this entry. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris303 (talk • contribs) 20:30, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Chris303 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris303 (talk • contribs) 20:32, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers on bottles

I don't want to sound all Wikipedian but do we have any sources regarding the numbers on the bottles? It's just that I've wondered for years what they were about and have heard plenty of different suggestions (syrupy/smooth, different production lines, no difference, etc) and it'd be great if someone had actually gone to the effort to find out for sure.

Also, I've seen bottles between 1-40 (including quite a number of 1s, so they can't be that rare) but I don't think I've ever seen one above that and I knew someone who maintained a complete collection of the numbered bottles. Perhaps this is a difference between the Scottish/Irish versions? Or have I just missed them (quite likely given the effect of the sweet tonic on one's memory)?--Acamon 09:45, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

My theory is that the numbers on the bottles themselves are to do with the manufacture rather than what is eventually put in them. I presume the number corresponds to the mould, so that if a faulty batch of bottles are produced then the offending mould can be taken out of service quickly. Another possibility is that it has something to do with the batch of raw glass, or perhaps that is what the dots signify. I am sceptical that the number on the bottle relates to the content because J Chandler will get consignments of bottles in the hundreds, if not more, and it would be difficult to separate bottles by the embossed number. BTW the bottle I bought in Blackpool at the weekend has number 19. Rugxulo 00:02, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
The (fairly incoherent) theory floating around down south is that the numbers relate to how the bottles are stacked in crates - either you get crates of '1s' or you get a crate numbered 1 to 24 or 40 or whatever. This might tie in with the view that lower numbers taste better than higher numbers. Or it might not. The stuff does seem to taste different from bottle to bottle. We should ask the monks i guess ...Mujinga 01:09, 12 July 2006 (UTC)


As far as I know the numbers on the bottles refer to either:

1. The cask/barrel the wine is from 2. The thickness of the glass

What factual evidence there is to support this I don't know. Maybe a section on "myths" regarding the numbers would be helpfull

I emailed Buckfast manufacturers J Chandler & Co about the numbers and I received the following reply. Bit disappointing really:

Thank you for your enquiry. The numbers on the bottle relate only to the glass bottle manufacturers mould numbers. They have no bearing on or relate to the wine in any way. Regards J Chandler & Co (Buckfast) Ltd

Franyhi 01:40, 22 March 2007 (UTC)franyhi

[edit] Don't Knock it Til You've Tried It

I would say don't knock it til you've tried it. Buckie is great stuff, I've always drank it since i was a kid out on the streets of Glasgow or down the park in the summer. I'm on my second bottle of the day now and i'm feeling ready for anything, whatever the world wants to throw at me. I've always dreamed of going to the abbey but it's never materialised although a couple of mates have. As for the bad name Buckie now has well, if it wasn't Buckie it would just be something else because there is nothing else to do for the kids out on the street but get pissed and get laid. That's life i'm afraid.

Paul Cashmygiro xBuckfastx@yahoo.co.uk

If this is a complete lie, I will requst that it be deleted. Also, you could also be having a lot of spam due to the fact you introduced your email address to the cyberworld".

Reasons why I think you are lying:

  • You disclose your e-mail address
  • Your "last name" is Cashmygiro (really should be cash my giro)
  • You're on your "second bottle a day" Hence you have ~30% of alcohol in your body. You would be terribly drunk.
  • You wrote it at ~11am (local time)

What a preposterous thing to say :("this is a complete lie")...

You obviously have no concept of what it means to be a Buckie drinker....

Buckfast is more than a drink of choice for neds and chronic alkies. It is, for better or worse, part of Scotland's popular cultural identity. Many clubbers on the Edinburgh electronic music scene (myself included) feel passionately about Buckfast. There are more than a few 'bionic-tonic' fuelled parties which will live long in my memory. Some of the best nights in Edinburgh's clubbing history have been drenched in the stuff.

So? Who gives a shit? --81.155.248.82 17:06, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Come back when you discover how percentages work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.159.31.227 (talk) 16:25, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nonsense removed

I removed the nonsense about the Convention on Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (which covers data held on computer and is therefore irrelevant to restricting sales of Buckfast - and even if the restrictions were based on electronic databases (HOW unlikely) off-licenses would only have to register with the DPR to comply with the regulations.) -- unsigned comment from user:84.67.70.215

Quite right - it sounds like someone's unsourced conjecture. If they'd said that xyz newspaper or abc pressure group had said it might contravene those laws then we should probably have included it, but lacking a source it's not suitable. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:46, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually, I just checked the new Data Protection Act and it does cover paper-based personal data in a "structured" format - nevertheless, an automatic breach of the act would only occur if off-licenses hadn't registered under the Act (and if they'd been told to record the data by the police, it seems likely they would have been told the correct procedure). -- user:84.67.70.215


If you are refering to restrictions on sales of Buckfast in Scotland there is some kind of data base kept. It seems to revolve around off-licences in certain areas being made to keep a list of the serial numbers from each bottle sold. The idea, although it doesn't sound that fullproof, is that when you buy a bottle you have to sign your name (possibly your address as well) then if a crime is committed using the bottle it can be traced back to you. As I said, it doesn't seem like the best system but I know it is in place in some ares on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Up here in East Kilbride they have also started writing on the bottles with ultra violet pens so that any underagers that get caught drinking it they will be able to tell which shop they got it from. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.97.22.70 (talk) 19:23, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article rearranged

I changed the article to give an overview of the drink's popularity in parts of Scotland and Ireland *before* going on to talk about underage drinking. The bit about "chronic alcoholics" I removed because the controversy is mainly about anti-social behaviour, not about use by heavy and/or alcoholic drinkers, and I have put more emphasis on that issue. Hope this is acceptable. 62.7.141.241 20:36, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I have added a new reference site for the Glasgow Buckfast Appreciation Society [1]

[edit] Buckfast Triangle

As a native of Coatbridge which is the largest of the 3 towns in the "buckfast triangle", I very much doubt that Airdrie, Bellshill and wishaw account for 80% of buckfast sales. The total population of the 3 towns is only around 80,000 which is nothing in comparison to Glasgow (ok, it'd probably be only the east end and south side that'd drink it, but still) or Belfast.

Also this triangle does not even include the two largest towns in their own region North Lanarkshire, Motherwell and Cumbernauld. Plus the article also incorrectly said that South Lanarkshire is in the triangle (which it isnt) which would suggest that buckfast is a problem there too.

Perhaps someone could suggest a more accurate correction? Jizz 03:08, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

AIUI the 80% figure came from the Daily Record. I can't find any surviving articles on the Record's website but one of the articles quoted by bawbag.com has this figure. Perhaps the "Buckfast Triangle" is another media invention. It (and the mention of it in the article) probably pre-dates the bother in Auchinleck in 2005 which is mentioned in the article. Rugxulo 21:29, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
Aye.. if it was listed in the Daily Retard is must be true.

[edit] Mrs Brown

Today I mentioned Buckfast with a friend of mine, a Mrs Brown. She had heard of the nickname "Mrs Brown" for the wine but thought it emanated from south west England (where she has in-laws of that name) and that the nickname is at least 20 years old. I was thinking it had something to do with The Broons. Some information on the origin of this nickname would be quite interesting because unlike many of the other nicknames (Wreck the hoose juice, Ned Champagne etc) it may not be of Scottish or Irish origin. Rugxulo 21:29, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Licence granted on condition Buckfast is not sold

The article mentions that a premises only got a licence on condition Buckfast was not to be sold (I will stick a citation tag there). ISTR reading somewhere that this is untrue, but a prospective licencee promised not to sell the wine in an attempt to make a good impression with the council. If so then the article text is wrong. Rugxulo 21:29, 1 January 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Northern Ireland, particularily Co. Armagh

I am angry to see that the North has not got much of a mention here. It is definitely as popular here as in Scotland. Co. Armagh is of course the county in which Lurgan is, mentioned elsewhere in the article. i may add something in..

   Do, although it seems some contributions have been scrapped already Franyhi 20:49, 15 March 2007 (UTC)franyhi

[edit] Armagh in Great Britain?

This is incorrect information. Whereas Armagh is in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it is not in Great Britain.

[edit] Monaghan Facts.

Why were they removed? Some excellent points of information were highlighted, including sub-cultural points such as "jobs", "hill-boys" and the "bedshed".

[edit] Hearsay

I met a nice old Irish alcoholic on a bus in Hackney a few years ago. As we shared a bottle of Buckies he told me about how the stuff used to be sold in pharmacies in Ireland. This was good for him after a night of hard drinking, because the pharmacies opened at ten in the morning, a full hour before the pubs, which opened at eleven. Thus, he could get a bottle in before the drinking began again. After a while the dastardly powers that be stopped the sale of Buckies in nonlicensed places and this is why (according to him) they had to put on the label that it contains "no health-giving properties". Cheers! Mujinga 01:14, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Buckaroo

The original 'Buckaroo' cocktail was developed close to the border of the Buckfast Triangle; namely in the woods between Gartcosh and Glenboig. On the rare occasions that the opposing villiagers weren't knocking the life out of each other, they would enjoy each others company with a mixture of Buckfast and Merrydown Gold label Cider. I suggest that the Sleazy's recipe be reduced to the 'Bucktini', and that the original and best recipe for the 'Buckaroo' is added.


PMSL at the list of cocktails =D someone has had a bit of a laugh there

hi i would like 2 add my stories 2 this article since the age of 14 i had my first taste of the toinc . and since then i have enjoyed every bottle . i have had most of my best memories on the tonic . from finding myself in the deep in marsh in the pitch black . from walking about the streets . trying 2 fight every one . buckfast had a influential part of my life. from the start i had 1 half bottle and i was fucked . now 2 to 3 bottles 2 be in the same state ! . but its the only drink i drink . i love ever drop of it . thanx u 4 reading my article . and i hope all u wine drinkers out there enjoy the toinc . many happy nights and day on the wine . 1 1 2 for the buckie crew .......

[edit] Photo

The photo of an empty bottle lying as litter gives a biased impression of the drink. If anyone agrees I will provide a photo of a full bottle standing on a counter. Doobystew 17:11, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately I must agree, the photo is entirely out of keeping with the usually humourless style of Wikipedia and it could be a lot better. You might also want to revert all the vandalism and put some protection on this page, it may be a lot of fun but it is not very encyclopaedic. -- Horkana 17:52, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nonsense Sentence

"The monks of Buckfast Abbey and their distribution partners strenuously deny that their product is particularly harmful, saying that it is irresponsibly and illegally enjoyed by the great majority of underage purchasers." I'm guessing that it is supposed to say something along the liens of "most purchasers enjoy it properly, it is the underage, illegal drinkers that are the problem". Also, the whole quote deserves a CITE PLZ. --JD79 20:01, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Caffiene

Some mention should be made of the high caffiene content of the drink, which adds greatly to its "fighting qualities"and keeps me awake when im driving.