We turn our attention now to memes, wine culture, and the human inclination towards dragging strangers when they say something stupid. At the center of this Venn diagram of concepts lies Josh Wine.
Maybe you’ve run into the Josh Wine meme already. Maybe it’s fresh to you, like a piping hot bottle of Josh Wine, and you want to start incorporating fresh new memes into your repertoire. Developing your tastes is a noble ambition, and we’re glad that you’ve taken it upon yourself to improve. We’re not gonna keep telling y’all to grow up and leave that Lady Pointing And Screaming and Crying Cat memes alone.
The Josh Wine meme: A journey into madness
The story of the Josh Wine meme goes as follows: On January 6, 2024, Twitter user @OptimusGrind__ did what most artists and poets spend their whole lives dreaming of doing: He brought something new and beautiful into the world.
His post, a picture of a bottle of merlot from Josh Cellars, went viral almost instantly. It helped that the accompanying text was sort of bonkers. “I’m not gonna keep telling y’all to grow up and leave that Stella & Barefoot alone,” @OptimusGrind__ wrote, prompting many to wonder: Just how good does this guy think a wine called Josh really is?
This isn’t to disparage Josh Cellars, it’s just never been the bellwether for taste and mature alcohol consumption that the post makes it out to be. The bottle featured in the photo retails for about the same price as a McDonald’s quarter-pounder meal. One retweet put it bluntly: “For non-wine drinkers, this is like someone driving a Hyundai making fun of a Kia driver.”
Soon, the internet had Josh fever, churning out ironic celebrations of the product one after the other. Josh Wine became the potable Chuck Norris of a new generation.
A week later, the only thing more ubiquitous than Josh Wine posts on Twitter (or X, if you’re nasty) is the cascade of posts complaining about Josh Wine.
For the record, Josh Cellars was founded in 2007, and the brand was named after the owner’s father. They didn’t ask to be a weird punchline, but here they are. On the other hand, Josh Cellars also has a section of their website dedicated to a recipe for hot chocolate using red wine as a base, so maybe there aren’t any good guys in this story.