Search for XXL wine on TikTok or Facebook, and thousands of results turn up. “This wine is LIQUOR,” says the text on one TikTok review of the moscato, which is 16% alcohol by volume.

Not all of the posts are positive. Another TikTok video about the strawberry and grape version shows the reviewer pouring the entire bottle down the drain of the kitchen sink. “This was not good,” she says. “I don’t get the hype, Facebook.”

First taste-tested in Baltimore, the high-alcohol dessert wine has seen sales surge across the U.S., becoming the most popular item for its Maryland distributor. That’s despite an anemic landscape for the overall alcoholic beverage market and a particularly bleak wine market, which saw sales drop 8% from August 2023 to this year, according to Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America.

XXL is now the top seller among wines at Rudies Liquor on North Avenue, says owner Timothy Oh, who first started carrying XXL last year after fielding requests from customers. Demand “just kept growing and growing,” he said. He can hardly keep up. A month ago, he ordered 100 cases — this week, another 50.

And it’s not just Maryland, either. Oh has a friend who owns a liquor store in Texas, who tells him that out West, “It’s moving crazy,” too.

While bottles of XXL list Moldova as its country of origin, the brand itself was born in Maryland. A few years ago, Frederick-based DMV Distributing was looking for a new product to increase their sales when they landed on XXL. “It’s named after my shirt size,” says Mark Mozier, vice president of sales and market development.

The company began blitzing the Baltimore area with wine tastings, and asking customers who liked it to spread the word on social media. Mozier recalls one pivotal tasting in Washington, D.C., where a man came in to taste XXL and film his reaction for the Internet. “This shit’s legit!” the man yelled, by Mozier’s recollection. Mozier, who also coaches lacrosse, repeated it back to the people in the store. “Did you hear that? ‘This shit’s legit.’ I started jumping up and down ... everybody started jumping up and down,” Mozier said.

The video went viral, and before long, DMV Distributing was getting requests for XXL from states like Texas, Florida and Michigan. “We did it all in Baltimore City and it affected the whole United States because of social media,” Mozier said.

Mozier and his coworker, Scott Swallow, see the runaway success of XXL as analogous to Michelob Ultra, a low-calorie beer that changed the game in the brewing world. “Now we’re on fire. We’re the hottest company right now,” Mozier said. And the bigger labels are taking notice. Oh, at Rudies Liquors, says that while imitators have popped up, “XXL outperforms all the competitors.”

In an effort to build off XXL’s success, DMV Distributing has expanded its offerings to include a 21% ABV version of XXL made in California and another 16% ABV wine brand called Pigtown, named after the Baltimore neighborhood and produced by Tomasello Winery in New Jersey. Wines typically are around 12% ABV, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Asked what goes into making XXL’s high-ABV wines, Mozier said: “I can’t really tell you,” but assured: “There’s nothing illegal mixed into it.”

Mozier says he hasn’t seen the “this shit’s legit” video since soon after it was posted. TikTok’s policies forbid expletives and the algorithm sometimes bans videos featuring alcoholic beverages. That makes DMV Distributing’s social media strategy a precarious one.

“I’m scared to show liquor on TikTok,” says Antwain Brown, a content creator who lives in Edmondson Village and goes by “Smirf” online. He loves drinking XXL, saying its flavor is “not dry, it’s not too bitter or anything. It’s sweet, but it’s right in the middle of anything that you’re looking for.” But he’s not likely to post about it online: The last time he featured alcohol in a TikTok video, his page was taken off the site.

But there are other ways of getting the word out. DMV Distributing remains aggressive about holding its own tastings of its products, which Mozier says makes a big difference in reaching consumers and increasing sales. “It’s about getting people to try something,” he said. “Money’s tighter now. People are going with what they’re familiar with.” They also use traditional advertising, posting signs in and around liquor stores where their XXL and Pigtown wines are carried.

Their No. 1 market, of course, is Baltimore.