In early twentieth-century Britain temperance reformers argued that unsuspecting women were being led down a slippery slope to alcoholism by medicated wines. Medicated wines were a form of patent medicine taken daily by some women as an apparently harmless pick-me-up. Most of them contained large quantities of alcohol. But three factors might encourage consumers to think otherwise. Makers did not declare the alcoholic content of medicated wines on product labels. Second, advertisements for medicated wines, which were among the most florid in the business, portrayed them as innocuous and emphasised that doctors recommended them broadly for general convalescence, fatigue and ailments associated with maternity. Third, the point of sale did not suggest alcoholic content because most medicated wine was sold in unlicensed department and grocery stores. To members of the UK Alliance, a leading temperance organisation, these three factors constituted a misrepresentation of the product which was luring innocent women to inebriety and destroying their lives. They launched a campaign to restrict the sale of medicated wine. This paper argues that it failed because temperance reformers argued that doctors agreed with them that medicated wines were dangerous. Evidence from the Alliance News, the official magazine of the United Kingdom Alliance, testimony before the Select Committee on Patent Medicines in 1911 and a highly publicised court case, Bendle v. the Alliance News in 1913, reveal that doctors, in fact, recommended medicated wines to their patients in droves. Certainly, the temperance lobby was correct that many of the popular brands contained at least fifteen per cent alcohol. Others contained small amounts of cocaine. It is true that neither ingredient was disclosed on product labels. On this basis, representatives of the UK Alliance contended not only that the substances were addictive and misrepresented, but also that the testimonials from doctors, which were central to the advertisements of all medicated wines, were invented and fraudulent. Unfortunately, investigation proved otherwise. Not only did doctors recommend medicated wines in defiance of professional ethics, some doctors held positions on the board of directors of medicated wine companies. Even the claim that medicated wines were nutritious wound up having medical supporters on both sides. In the end, by trying to damage the medicated wine business, temperance reformers exposed the weaknesses of their own arguments and unwittingly helped the tonics to thrive through the inter-war period and beyond.