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Whereas the original California Cooler was still the sales leader last year, big companies are crashing the party. California's Gallo, the largest winery in the world, is expected to take over the No. 1 position this year with its heavily advertised Bartles & Jaymes citrus cooler. Customers have been lured by its homespun TV ads, in which laconic Non-Actors Dave Rufkahr, an Oregon farmer, and Richard Maugg, a California contractor, portray the fictional characters of Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes.
Many companies have introduced competitors based on other alcoholic beverages. Detroit's Stroh Brewery produces White Mountain, a cooler made from malt and flavorings. Champale makes a similarly derived cooler in pineapple- coconut and three other varieties. The crowding has already produced the beginnings of a shake-out, which prompted Coors brewery to yank its Colorado Chiller off the market last February.
Besides weighing in with wine coolers in three flavors, Seagram last month began test-marketing an unusual liquor-based hybrid called Golden Spirits, which is flavored with natural fruit essences to produce mixtures like peach- melba rum. "They are selling extraordinarily well," says House of Seagram President Edgar Bronfman Jr. Rival distillers are blending other cocktails. Connecticut's Heublein, maker of Smirnoff vodka, is test-marketing Tropic Freezers, which turn into frozen drinks like strawberry daiquiris after about six hours in a customer's freezer.
Since moderation-minded customers often shy away from buying binge-size bottles of hard stuff, some distillers have repackaged their products as premixed cocktails. While they have tried this before with limited success, they now plan to offer more varieties in slicker containers. Chicago's Jim Beam, maker of the top-selling bourbon, has introduced single-serving cans in which its flagship brand is premixed with lemonade and other soft drinks. Winemakers have caught on to picnic-style packaging as well. Yago Sant'gria, the Spanish wine, now comes in six-packs of the same cardboard containers (straws included) that normally contain fruit juice for children's lunch boxes.
Yet nothing has gone down quite so smoothly as an improbable hit called DeKuyper's Original Peachtree Schnapps, a liqueur that was introduced in 1984 by New York's National Distillers. The company, suffering from falling sales of its Old Crow and Old Grand-Dad bourbons, was looking for something more up- to-date when one of its researchers came up with the idea while trimming peach trees in his backyard. With almost no advertising, the low-alcohol (48 proof) cordial took off faster than any other liquor in the industry's history, selling almost 1.4 million cases in the first half of 1986. More than 30 other brands of peach schnapps have now flooded the market. The popularity of the peach extends into the wine business. Riunite, the Italian wine brand, had an instant hit last month when it introduced Natural Peach wine.