[3] It has been produced in a variety of fruit flavors including "red", "orange", "peach", "berry", "gold",[4] "black cherry", "blue raspberry" and "strawberry".
[5] Journalist Julia Flynn Siler wrote that Cisco was "a syrupy hooch that has been described as tasting like fruit-flavored Robitussin mixed with liquid Jell-O and two-hundred-proof vodka.
"[6] A 2015 review of strawberry Cisco by Andy Kryza of Thrillist described it as having "the consistency of watered-down cough syrup and sugar, but none of the flavor of traditional sizurp.
[18] Also in 1991, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a complaint against the Canandaigua Wine Company, alleging that the flavor varieties, packaging, and branding of Cisco deceptively resembled low alcohol beverages which could be safely consumed as a single serving.
[22] The chairman of the House Select Committee on Youth[23] and the Surgeon General of the United States, Antonia Novello, also urged the company to change the marketing and packaging of the wine.
[24] A study of homeless intravenous drug users in San Francisco between 1994 and 2006 found that daily alcohol consumption was common among participants, "primarily inexpensive, twelve-ounce bottles of Cisco Berry fortified wine".
[30] Paul Beatty noted Cisco's popularity among "white college hepsters at the University of Mercury" and "Aspen-ski-vacation, company car drivin'" black men who wanted to imitate rap culture.