"Strawberry Wine" is a song written by Matraca Berg and Gary Harrison, and recorded by American country music artist Deana Carter. It was released in August 1996 as Carter's debut single and the first from her debut album Did I Shave My Legs for This?. The song also became Carter's first number 1 hit on both the US BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks chart and the Canadian RPM Country Tracks. "Strawberry Wine" is Carter's most successful single overall, and is considered a signature song both for her and for songwriter Matraca Berg.
Content
"Strawberry Wine" is a ballad, backed primarily with steel guitar and percussion. The narrator describes a time in her youth when she lost her innocence, and compares her love to the sweetness of "strawberry wine". As she grows older, she returns to this place, to find that everything has changed. Carter originally performed this song in the key of D-flat major with a vocal range of A3-D5. It has a 6/8 time signature and the main chord pattern is D-G-D-A-D. The song tells the story of co-writer Berg's own coming of age as a teenager outside of Luck, Wisconsin, she recalled: "We used to go to my grandparents' dairy farmin the summer. My aunt, who's six months younger than me, and I would try to score some wine. And I met this boy..." Berg shopped the song to record labels around Nashville, but they passed, considering it overly long, controversial due to its reference to a teenage girl losing her virginity, and not memorable enough. Deana Carter heard Berg perform the song at a showcase and then recorded it for her debut album, Did I Shave My Legs for This?.
"Strawberry Wine" debuted at number 70 on the U.S. BillboardHot Country Singles & Tracks for the chart week of August 17, 1996. The song reached Number One on the chart in November 1996, holding the position for two weeks. The song has sold 870,000 digital copies in the US as of October 2015.
Music video
A music video was released for "Strawberry Wine", directed by Roger Pistole. Carter sings the song while standing in the entry way to a house, on a living room couch, and behind the screen door. Accompanying these scenes are a young couple in love. The couple are seen on an old dirt road in the countryside, in front of the house, and in a car drive down the road. Scenes of other people are included as well, including an elderly man by a rocking chair and a woman standing in what was once farmland.
