charles shaw wine
to understand how charles shaw sells wine for pocket change, it helps to know who charles shaw is—and why he has absolutely nothing to do with this story .
but what comes from my bottle of charles shaw shiraz is… warm grape juice .
charles shaw display in california after the 2013 price increase to $ 2. 49
grapevines growing on the grounds of the bronco wine company in ceres, california, where charles shaw wine is produced .
i’ll taste all the charles shaw varieties to see which ones are worth your money .
renowned winemaker ric forman, who consulted on the charles shaw gamay in 1982, laments chuck shaw' s departure from the napa valley .
claim: charles shaw wine was sold cheaply because airlines could no longer use corkscrews after 9 / 11 and dumped their stocks of wine .
a bottle of the grocery store' s most popular wine brand, charles shaw, sells for less than $ 3 .
( ceres, calif .) – three wines from charles shaw winery, the super - value brand also known as “two buck chuck, ” have received high honors at a large and respected wine competition. the 2011 charles shaw cabernet sauvignon, 2012 charles shaw merlot and 2012 charles shaw white zinfandel – each won a gold medal at the 2013 orange county fair wine competition, while the 2011 charles shaw chardonnay received a bronze medal. all are current vintage california appellation wines that retail from $ 2. 49 to $ 3. 49 nationally .
the charles shaw label is owned by the bronco wine company, headed by fred franzia, formerly of franzia brothers wines. the bronco wine company produces the charles shaw label at their ceres, california winery, which is not open to the public .
bronco is best known as the company behind charles shaw, nicknamed
two - buck chuck .
bronco created a stir in the wine industry in early 2003 by selling its charles shaw brand for $ 1. 99 in trader joe' s locations. trader joe' s has sold more than 300 million bottles of charles shaw .
charles shaw is known in local circles as
two buck chuck ,
said shopper mercy malick .
financially - distressed united airlines attempted to raise some quick cash by selling its food service stocks, including an ample supply of charles shaw wine .
charles shaw himself, engaged in a bitter divorce struggle, attempted to reduce the value of his winery’s assets by flooding the market with cheap wine .
charles shaw wine, also (infamously) known as “two - buck chuck, ” is certainly a cultural touchstone. introduced in the early aughts at
i just took a trip to hawaii and took two bottles of charles shaw cab and two bottles of chas shaw chard. i took a bottle of shafer cab and one rombauer chard .
also known as
two - buck chuck ,
charles shaw wine comes in multiple red and white varieties, including cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and merlot .
before his name became synonymous with bargain booze, charles shaw was an early pioneer of the napa valley wine industry and made delicious, award - winning vino .
charles shaw wine used to be great - - and nobody drank it. now, it' s terrible and it' s selling like gangbusters .
according to a laboratory that analyzes wine who was interviewed by cbs news, charles shaw white zinfandel contained 31 parts - per - billion of arsenic when tested .
further information and media enquiries for philip shaw wines contact damian shaw, damian @ philipshaw. com. au, 0418 418 752
there' s also the story that charles shaw is a bighearted billionaire who wanted to expose the proletariat to the finer things in life .
charles shaw is a brand of
extreme value
, bargain - priced wine. [ 1 ] largely made from california grapes, charles shaw wines currently include cabernet sauvignon, white zinfandel, merlot, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, valdiguié in the style of beaujolais nouveau, and limited quantities of pinot grigio .
franzia believed a plastic cork would affect the taste of the wine and potentially cheapen customers' perception of charles shaw, so he used low - cost natural cork products instead .
every time we drank the wine after that it tasted worse and worse. now we’ve given charles shaw the boot and moved up to the premium $ 2. 99 bottles .
again, we will not offer any product we feel is unsafe. we have had no reports of adverse reactions to charles shaw wines—or other wines—related to the potential presence of arsenic. we continue to have no reason to believe the wines we offer are unsafe, including charles shaw white zinfandel .
kai ryssdal: tell me who the chuck, the charles shaw of “two buck chuck, ” is. because he’s a real person, right ?
also known as charles shaw wine, trader joe’s super cheap yet tasty vino was introduced in 2002. customers were immediately smitten by the $ 1. 99 price point and quality .
according to thrillist, shaw used his wife' s money to buy 20 acres of napa valley land to start a winery in 1974. business was brisk, and shaw knew his high - end wine from grape juice. the charles shaw label came to represent quality among wine aficionados, and his business grew to include 115 acres by the late 1980s .
the wine, which debuted in 2002, is made by an offshoot of the famous franzia family, which makes the boxed wine you know and love. bronco wine, which makes charles shaw, grow in the san joaquin valley in california, which is cheaper than growing in fancier napa and sonoma because temperatures are higher. and though most wines are aged in oak barrels, charles shaw wine uses oak chips to cut costs .
the charles shaw 2005 california chardonnay (yes, the $ 1. 99 “two buck chuck” made by bronco wine company sold at trader joe’s) was judged best chardonnay from california at california state fair commercial wine competition .
to dave patel, try westfield, nj. check out this web site “buzz about charles shaw” or something like that. good luck! !! jordan
trader joe’s is among 28 companies named in a recently filed legal complaint. 83 wine products are listed in the filing, covering a range of brands, including one varietal of charles shaw—white zinfandel .
ryssdal: so then, how do we wind up with charles shaw wines in trader joe' s for what i think is now technically $ 2. 49 ?
the wine' s low price has attracted some criticism. critics have called it undrinkable and
sugar water .
a wine shop owner once publicly accused the company that makes charles shaw wine, called bronco wine, of failing to remove dead birds, leaves, insects, and rodents from its grape harvests. bronco wine has denied the allegations .
he adds that he wishes the napa valley vintners association would take up the cudgel for him and try and get bronco to stop selling the charles f. shaw wines .
but the biggest mystery of trader joe’s may be in their liquor section, where their store - endorsed line of charles shaw wine sells for as little as $ 1. 99 a bottle in some markets .
purple wine company' s sister is sonoma wine company, a major custom crush wine facility that shares employees .
we' re doing the best we can to make good wines and are pleased the california state fair picked our charles shaw with a double gold ,
franzia said .
in the early aughts, charles shaw wine gets its nickname, rising to cult stardom as the accessible and cheap wine option. but as two buck chuck finds its place in the world, the original man behind the label gets left in the dust .
since it was introduced in february, charles shaw wine has gained a cult - like following in southern california, with wine drinkers backing their cars up to the loading dock of the los angeles - based discounter to lay in a supply of the trader joe’s exclusive .
as do dozens of other brands, charles shaw wines come from california' s prolific, sometimes controversial bronco wine company - a major producer and / or purveyor of a multitude of wine brands that often are good award - winning values and lauded in this column .
indeed he was. shaw, a stanford business school graduate, bought a napa winery with his wife, lucy, in 1974 and began to produce charles shaw beaujolais. however, after the shaws divorced in 1991, they sold the winery. the charles shaw label possessed a good reputation, though, and bronco wine co. , a mass - market wine conglomerate located in the central valley’s stanislaus county, bought it up and revived it in 2002 for sales of a line of inexpensive wines through the trader joe’s chain of grocery stores .
when trader joe' s introduced charles shaw wine in 2002, it sold for $ 1. 99 a bottle. the price of
two buck chuck” has since risen, but the nickname endures. journalist natalie o' neill went in search of the original charles shaw for an article in thrillist on the history of trader joe’s wine. she talked with marketplace host kai ryssdal about what she learned. the following is an edited transcript of their conversation .
who cares what the price is, if you like it go for it! i have a few cases of charles shaw and a couple cases of caymus conondrum, theres always a wine for everyday. go with the flow !
[ w ] ine industry experts say that despite the classy napa label, there probably isn’t a hint of those pricey grapes in a bottle of charles shaw merlot, chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon .
i had a wine tasting. my hawaiian friends preferred the shaw over the shafer. the shafer was young and strong. the shaw is blended to drink right now! the shaw chard is to me “instant headache charodanny”. that s no dig however, because so is edna valley and gloria ferrara (sp) .
cbs news has reported testing results on charles shaw white zinfandel, said to contain 31 parts - per - billion of arsenic. cbs news also stated it had conducted its own testing on four wines listed in the filing and that “the arsenic levels were all considerably lower than beveragegrades’ results, ” citing a result for charles shaw white zinfandel “at more than twice [ the ] standard. ”
“with this month' s consumer reports magazine making our chardonnay a best buy and ranking it third of 10 wines rated costing up to ten times as much, it' s been a great month for charles shaw, ” said fred franzia, ceo of bronco wine company, producer of charles shaw. “we thank the american people for recognizing our quality and value and also thank our retail partner, trader joe' s. ”
when it comes to wine, some consumers still equate quality with price. but at the 28th annual international eastern wine competition, a $ 1. 99 bottle of california wine, the 2002 charles shaw shiraz, beat out 2, 300 wines to win a prestigious double gold medal. hear npr' s steve inkseep .
the oatley family are pleased to announce they will once again work with the shaw family as philip shaw wines from orange nsw joins the oatley family wine merchants (ofwm) portfolio of family - owned wineries on 1st may, 2017 .
and second, the production of the wine in bulk, using machines rather than human labor, keeps costs down. once the wine is made, it' s placed in lighter bottles and cartons than your typical wine to decrease shipping costs. you can read more about charles shaw' s cost - cutting at business insider .
' two - buck chuck' snags top wine prize when it comes to wine, some consumers still equate quality with price. but at the 28th annual international eastern wine competition, a $ 1. 99 bottle of california wine, the 2002 charles shaw shiraz, beat out 2, 300 wines to win a prestigious double gold medal. hear npr' s steve inkseep .
keith wallace, wine expert and author: the wine he made back then was actually really good. but nobody was buying it because nobody knew much about gamay. the irony is that charles shaw wine used to be great - - and nobody drank it. now, it' s terrible and it' s selling like gangbusters .
also as usual, the real explanation why many wine brands (not just charles shaw) could be had so cheaply at the time (2001) was a mundane one: the market was experiencing a wine glut. the wine boom of the 1990s led vineyards to increase production, but a downturn in the u. s. economy
charles shaw hasn' t been a wine man for more than a dozen years. yet, his name thrives on the business acumen of others, who have turned a forgotten brand into a quirky name that has gone on to become just about the most astonishing phenomenon in american wine history .
why was such a popular wine (charles shaw was one of the top 20 brands in the u. s .) being sold so cheaply? as usual, consumers collectively created several inventive urban legend - like explanations for this seemingly inexplicable phenomenon :
here’s a telling detail: when i went to the store, i bought seven bottles of trader joe’s proprietary charles shaw, and one bottle of wine i actually wanted. the $ 30 total purchase price was about equally split between those two categories .
st. charles – this month, after more than 85 years under the same name, st. charles’ ford dealership is coming under new ownership, when the zimmerman family bows out of the local auto sales business .
the advantage of any private label is that no one can compare prices from one retailer to the next. trader joe' s is the only retailer than sells charles shaw, just as whole foods exclusively carries three wishes and total wine' s pacific peak .
we’ve been buying the $ 2 charles shaw wine ever since trader joe’s set up shop just a ten - minute walk away from our apartment. it’s nothing to write home about, but it’s drinkable and hey, you can buy a case for $ 24 .
for the last ten years, the supermarket chain trader joe' s has been selling its charles shaw wines – better known as two - buck chuck – for two bucks. it' s been a great success .
with his business bankrupt, shaw submitted to an auction of the winery’s assets. the trade name was purchased by fred fanzia, owner of the bronco wine company. with shaw off pursuing other opportunities, his name—and his former brand—was left in fanzia’s hands .
charles shaw wine is produced in napa, at an average speed of 245 bottles per minute. fred franzia' s son joe runs this recently built factory. he gave me a tour, and says he’s really proud of how it' s changing the industry .
trader joe' s is perhaps one of the most well - known distributors with wine that' s named in the complaint– their popular charles shaw wines are often bought by the caseload by consumers, looking for a great deal on the
two buck chuck .
charles krug winery, the first winery founded in the napa valley in 1861, is owned by the peter mondavi family. there are two brands, ck mondavi, of which roughly one million cases of california wine are produced, and the charles krug brand, involving about 80, 000 cases of premium napa valley wine .
i notice charles shaw’s version has a slightly deeper color than i’d expected — it looks more like a chardonnay in the glass. the nose reveals a few classic notes, like taking a whiff of lime rind and grass .
charles shaw (aka “2 buck chuck”) is only available at trader joes stores. it is produced by bronco wines, which is owned by the franzia family (yes, the same franzia that sells box wines) .
this summer the market price for those grapes hit a low of $ 60 a ton. swimming in excess wine, [ bronco wine co. head ] franzia revived the charles shaw label, believing it would be more cost - effective to dump his wine on the consumer market than to pour it on the ground. taking advantage of the depressed wine grape market, he also bought up excess stock from other central valley vintners, according to several wine industry sources .
amy kelly reaches for bottles of charles shaw wine, being sold at $ 1. 99 a bottle at trader joes, dec. 27, 2002, in sacramento, calif. the latest buzz in california wine circles is over two - buck chuck, the little wine priced at $ 1. 99 that could herald a new era for the once high - flying industry .
now bronco owns a lot of land in california – more than 40, 000 acres of vineyards – mostly in the san joaquin valley. and charles shaw wine is just one of more than 90 different bronco brands, most of which sell for less than ten dollars per bottle .
none of that applies to brands like charles shaw. the label only says the wine comes from california, which is one reason why critics like bonne say that it almost doesn' t make sense to discuss the quality of such lower shelf bottles that cost less than $ 15 .
we will not offer any product we feel is unsafe. ever. we have no reason to believe the wines we offer are unsafe, including charles shaw white zinfandel ,
spokeswoman rachel broderick told patch via email friday afternoon .
meaning: that the demand for wine was at its optimum after reports — immediately following the demise of the shaw winery — determined that it must be red wine which staves off all kinds of illness and disease .
neighbor and grape grower bill collins, whose vineyard on big tree road is adjacent to what is now benessere vineyards and what used to be the charles shaw winery, says the winery folded because of lucy and chuck' s disintegrating relationship .
actually, it' s an over - abundance of grapes that' s made charles shaw cheap to bottle - - an estimated 5 million cases so far. it' s easily outselling more famous brands like mondavi and gallo in california .
he did say, however, that
it' s not a napa wine, not a napa valley wine, and not of the quality of the charles shaw brand where we spent all that time — visiting every hotel and restaurant in every state — and using techniques where every one of my wines was estate grown with layers of complexity .
zimmerman ford has been a dealership in st. charles for more than 85 years. it is now coming under new ownership .
franzia controls scores of brands and labels including charles shaw that under - sell the prestige vineyards. and
two buck chuck
is just his latest broadside :
we have others up our sleeve we think are even better coming out .
the charles shaw label (known in local slang as “two - buck chuck”) was the focus of those “cheap wine” rumors because it bore a prestigious napa label, even though it sold for less than $ 2 per bottle. the catch was that it’s made with cheaper grapes from california’s central valley rather than more desirable grapes from the napa valley, but because the label’s parent company does own a winery and bottling facility in napa, it is allowed to put “napa” on the charles shaw label (which only indicates that the wine is “bottled and cellared” in napa) even if the grapes used in the wine actually come from some other part of california :
but the real charles shaw, who now tries to make a living by selling software that monitors cardiac surgery, sits in a north - chicago suburb pining for the wine business and trying to figure out a way to get the people who sell two buck chuck, to not misuse his good name .
there was once an actual, eponymous winery owned by charles f. shaw, which produced beaujolais - style wines in the napa valley ava. that winery went out of business, and the name was sold to bronco in 1990. [ 8 ]
the metrics are staggering. their top brand – charles shaw – sells for $ 2 in california, and is known as “2 - buck - chuck. ”they produce and ship over 45 mil - lion liters or 12 million gallons of this brand annually .
that' s been the gimmick of charles shaw, aka
two buck chuck ,
which hit the shelves at trader joe' s in january 2002. the wine' s $ 1. 99 price tag, simple off - white label, and saccharine flavor, closer to grape juice than wine, sparked a collective freakout among american bargain hunters. it flew in the face of the wine world' s snobbery; it was an everyperson' s bottle of wine .
! i had never heard of charles shaw until i attended a wine tasting party. all the tastings were blind. there were 20 bottles of “good” wine with a couple bottles of 2 buck chuck thrown in there. well, the numbers of all 20 guests were compiled and guess what was rated number 1 at the end of the night…that’s right, charles shaw cab. i was shocked too until i tried another bottle a couple weeks after and still found it to be good. now don’t get me wrong, i like a good expensive bottle of wine now and then. but if you compare this to other wines in the $ 20 - 30 range it’s a great value .
i think two buck chuck wine is a great wine for the price. considering many wines that are highly overpriced don \ ’t offer much more in taste as charles shaw wine does. i \ ’ve tasted better wines, this is true, but cs wine is a good deal to anyone and i \ ’ll continue to buy them by the case. another inexpensive wine is ecco domani, it runs around 6 - 9 dollars. if i can \ ’t find that one i \ ’ll always have two buck chuck on standby .
at the 28th annual international eastern wine competition, shaw' s 2002 shiraz received the double gold medal, beating approximately 2, 300 other wines in the competition. [ 9 ]
the wine group is a large san francisco - based wine company that owns 11 wineries and nine major brands .
wimbledon wine company produces hahn estates, cycles gladiator, smith & hook, huntington wine cellars and red flyer .
i’ve heard that the best way to enjoy charles shaw is to go to your local trader joe’s when they’ve gotten their lastest shipment in, then try one bottle of the wine and if it’s good, go ahead and buy a case—each shipment seems to vary in quaility…. but for a broke student like myself, one really isn’t especially picky when it comes to 2 dollar wine
o’neill: if you look at a bottle of charles shaw wine, it says on the label, “bottled in napa valley, ” which has a certain prestige to it, but in reality he' s getting the grapes from the central valley of california, which is a much less desirable place for grapes to grow .
from the time he was capitalized by the inheritance from his wife lucy in 1979 and through a panoply of business decisions — which included the quixotic but short - sighted notion that he could sell lots of wine made from a grape variety that america knew nothing about - the charles f. shaw winery was doomed to failure .
the charles f. shaw — nicknamed two buck chuck — wines, through an exclusive distributorship with the trader joe' s food stores, have sold millions of cases over the last couple of years; and made a whole lot of money for a lot of people .
so we brought in two devoted tasters to blindly drink eight different types of charles shaw blend, hit us with detailed notes, and determine 1) which bottles are totally palatable and even enjoyable, and 2) which should be avoided as if they were made by chuck woolery, who, it turns out, makes terrible wine .
you can’t talk about cheap wine without talking about charles shaw, famously known as
two - buck chuck .
the wine is now
“two - dollars - and - forty - nine - cents chuck
here in the bay area, but despite the price hike, it is still the standard - bearer of cheap wine. in this story from our archives, artjoms konohovs explores how wine can be priced so low - - and at bottom barrel prices, he asks, can it really taste good ?
that means the actual wine inside a bottle of charles shaw has a retail value of about $ 0. 75. bonne says that bronco is using really cheap grapes that are almost entirely grown in the san joaquin valley, where land is cheaper than in napa or sonoma. moreover, he adds that “fred franzia, who runs bronco, is an absolute master of leveraging the bulk wine system to kind of pick up bulk wine where it' s available. ”
trader joe’s also partners with wineries to bring high - quality but low - cost wines to its outlets, like charles shaw, otherwise known as
two buck chuck ,
which has taken america by storm. between 20 - 25 percent of trader joe’s products are imported from overseas .
in person of interest season four, episode three, finch tells shaw “until i can access some auxiliary funds, we have no choice but to commit to our identities socioeconomic status”. shaw replies “copy that. ramen and two buck chuck for the rest of the month. ”
earlier this month, the longtime owners of zimmerman ford completed the sale of the fixture in st. charles’ business community to hawk ford of oak lawn .
tom eddy, court - appointed trustee of charles shaw vineyard: it was tragic. in 1992, they went bankrupt and stopped producing the wine. the creditors were after them. a judge overseeing the bankruptcy case hired me to protect the property. he said ,
you make sure the place is locked and nobody breaks in. keep the wine safe. oh, and by the way, neither charles or lucy can set foot on the property .
i said ,
that' s fine .
but i didn' t know what i was getting into .
such a deal! pour into a nice wine glass and it’s “simply the best”! a wine snob couldn’t tell the difference .
two and - a half million dollars was owed to west america bank, $ 630, 000 was coming to kobrand, and $ 500, 000 was outstanding to oliver' s group. in' 92, it all coalesced to force the charles f. shaw winery to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy .
no more. we unfortunately saw the tv special about the product. it turns out the man making it, fred franzia, is quite an unsavory character. he’s a convicted felon—and the crime had to do with wine and mislabeled grapes, and cost him $ 3 million in fines. he looks really unpleasant. he bought the label on the cheap from the ex - wife of the real charles shaw. he tries to pass his wine off as a napa wine although the grapes come from all over .
the lighter glass reduces the weight of a case of wine by several pounds, meaning bronco can ship more wine at a time .
in 2007, charles krug continued to grow the napa valley portfolio. the winery also upgraded equipment, adding 19 fermentation tanks and an additional press, positioning the winery for growth of its estate - driven wines. charles krug also received ccof organic certification on three vineyards in 2006, and two more should be certified next year .
bronco sells more than 80 different wine labels at varying price points. for trader joe’s, fanzia decided to aim for the kind of traffic - stopping signage that would get people talking. his line of charles shaw wines debuted in trader joe' s stores in 2002 and sold for $ 1. 99 a bottle in many markets, which quickly earned it the nickname “two buck chuck. ” wine connoisseurs debated the practicality of offering quality wine at such a low price; college students filled up grocery carts with them .
bronco wine company makes wines under the forestville, estrella, charles shaw, montpellier, grand cru, silver ridge, rutherford vintners, hacienda, fox hollow and napa ridge brands, among many others. with thousands of acres of vineyard holdings, this is a bulk wine producer with more than 100 million gallons of capacity. bronco makes wine in ceres and napa, california, under contract to barrel ten quarter, which it owns. in 2003, bronco purchased a production facility in escalon, california from constellation brands .
the reason we have this wine right now is that there is a glut of unsold wine on the market—some from very well known producers .
unfortunately, shaw’s business acumen was not always as refined as his palate. a mistake in the kind of wax used for his wine barrels—petroleum - based instead of beeswax—tainted a massive supply, and shaw was forced to discard 1400 barrels of vino and suffer hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. he also erroneously anticipated a demand for burgundy - style wines, stocking up just as demand was slowing. root lice infested his crops, chewing at his grapes. by 1992, shaw was more or less the job of the winemaking trade .
shaw: i moved my family there to start charles shaw winery in 1974. we were part of a pioneering group out there. in 1978, we made our first production of gamay. we were so excited. it was carbonic, it had an amazing garnet color and was really quite striking. i liked to drink it with a tiffany' s all - purpose glass. you could smell it just sitting at the table, and people said it had notes of banana .
he started by buying the then failing charles shaw label years ago along with massive amounts of bulk wine in the 90’s for pennies on the dollar and a staggering 35, 000 acres of land in the very cheap san joaquin valley which he then planted to vines. that gives his bronco wines the prestige of holding the most acreage of vines of any american winery, even surpassing mondavi and gallo .
the bronco wine company portfolio of wines is owned by the franzia family, which has been in the wine business for more than 120 years. bronco wine company and the franzia family have no relationship to franzia brand boxed wine. for more information on any of the bronco wine company wines visit urltoken or call 877 - 411 - napa (6272) .
“we have known the oatley family for over 35 years, with many great wines and successes. this opens another chapter between our families” said philip shaw today .
in 2006, the wine group also announced a marketing joint venture with gcf groupe (considered the leading exporter of wine in france) with the wine group representing gcf' s french portfolio in the u. s. and gcf selling the wine group' s california portfolio into europe .
charles shaw left his namesake winery and the family home where he and lucy raised five children. for about eight months, shaw began to live at various places in the valley. astonishingly, he moved in with his mother - in - law for a few weeks several blocks from downtown st. helena. he settled in reg oliver' s guest house for four months on the rutherford crossroad, and then he rented a house from pat garvey on zinfandel lane for another three or four months .
a decade of judging at the new world international wine competition taught me that results from well - run wine contests (such as the california state fair commercial wine competition) are dependable guides to quality wines and wineries .
i’m pleased to see that the wine isn’t too pale in the glass — cabernet is a dense red wine and should be a deep ruby color .
any wine that doesn’t give me a headache or heartburn is great for me. cs wine, least the reds, haven’t tried the whites fill the bill for me. pretty decent for el cheapo wine. oddly, i’ve found white wine gives me a headache so i tend to avoid them .
dr. richard peterson, veteran winemaker and a state fair judge for 20 years, said, “we have the most open judging i know. there is nothing to bias judging. we get numbered glasses. we don’t know the region, brand or price. we evaluate the judges frequently to make sure they’re tops in the field. charles shaw won because it is a fresh, fruity, well - balanced chardonnay that people and wine judges — though maybe not wine critics — will like. ”
philip shaw wines from orange join pikes (clare valley) and josef chromy (tasmania) as new additions to be distributed in australia by oatley family wine merchants (ofwm) from may 1. “we are delighted to include these three premium australian family - owned and run wine companies to our portfolio” said sandy oatley .
two buck chuck is $ 2. 99 here in michigan. it is a “nice american table wine”. i have been lucky enough to enjoy some very fine and wonderful wines over the last thiry some years that i have been drinking wine. i am not embarassed to serve charles shaw. i never have had a guest be disapointed. the bottle is always empty at the end of a meal. if a real wine snob is coming for dinner i break out with the better stuff. thank you freddy. you make being fiscally resonsilbe easy cludy 1 - 26 - 2005
shaw: i tried to put it all behind me. i totally changed what i was doing. i went to chicago and helped start a company called database network systems. but that might have been foolish; i never stopped thinking about wine .
a two - dollar bottle of wine sounds almost crazy if you think about it for two seconds. how can booze cost around the same as a bottle of soda? but trader joe' s makes it work, selling the iconic charles shaw wine, or
two - buck chuck ,
for $ 1. 99 plus tax. so how does this stuff actually get so cheap? business insider did some digging to figure it out, and it has to do with growing and producing the stuff in bulk .
to napa and sonoma to be vinified (made into wine) and bottled .
as in normal wine - tasting protocol, we’ll start out with the whites .
unless you normally buy expensive chardonnay, this wine will probably quench your appetite .
even the new york times wine critic sees it as a sort of blessing .
it was the early' 90s and the business was in a free fall. amidst the turmoil, a familiar wine mogul known for his shrewd, vulture - like business style snaps up the failing label. shaw doesn' t see a penny from the transaction .
the bronco wine co. produces a variety of low - cost wines, and its president, fred franzia, has earned the enmity of plenty of other wine country
2. the company ferments wine with oak chips, which are cheaper than barrels, according to taber, who interviewed bronco wine owner fred franzia for his book .
jackson family wines is a family - owned wine company with four divisions, more than 1, 200 employees globally and three dozen wine brands. the four divisions are kendall - jackson wine estates (primarily kendall - jackson at about 3. 5 million cases), artisan & estates, jackson wine estates international and white rocket, serving the under $ 10 - per bottle category and introducing young adults to wine .
sure enough, after the crush of' 89, the beginning of the end had overtaken the shaw winery internally just as an infinitesimally sized mite was eating away at the vines outside .
constellation brands has separated into several divisions, with wine - focused divisions being constellation wines u. s. , vincor canada, hardy wine company, constellation europe and nobilo wine company. there are several other divisions focused on spirits and other offerings .
another example is cork. bronco prefers not to use plastic cork for any of its wines. some have screw caps, known in the industry as “stelvin closures”. but for charles shaw, bronco uses one of the cheapest forms of natural cork. it' s a mold of small pieces with a real cork veneer at the bottom. “we believe cork to be the primary closure method for wine, so we want to maintain the high quality of cork with a natural tip as a barrier between the composite and a wine itself, ” says franzia .
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shaw: by 1983, we were charging $ 13. 50 for a bottle. in 1992, the business had grown to 115 acres. it was some of the best wine in the napa valley. we won awards internationally. pretty soon, we were putting out 15, 000 cases a year of multiple types of wine with some 60 employees .
chuck shaw, founder of charles shaw: i was going to stanford in 1971, taking a small - business class. my professor told each student to find a company in the area to work with. i heard about a guy who was making wine out of his garage, so i started working with him and fell in love. i knew i wanted a vineyard. but my wife, lucy, said ,
you don' t have any money ,
so i took a job at a bank. the bank later asked me to go to paris and my office ended up being right behind [ famous wine expert ] steven spurrier' s school. i got hooked. i flew to napa and bought 20 acres above lake hennessey .
“ford was in agreement with this, ” jack zimmerman said. “they thought [ hawk ] would be a good fit here in st. charles, and they have an excellent track record with ford. ”
“fred [ franzia ] is very adamant that no one should pay more than ten dollars for a bottle of wine ever, ” says bonne. “although, even he has broken that by offering some reserves. but he simply believes in cheap wine. ” cheap wine is not something new for california. in fact, there is a long tradition of making cheap wine that is sold just as table wine, bonne adds .
bronco makes an impressive 90 million gallons of wine a year, according to taber .
it will be interesting to see if total wine sales people seem to steer customers to the private labels instead of the name brands, as some local wine sellers believe .
bronco wine company uses inductive automation software for enterprise - wide process monitoring and control .
never mind the fact, that while others get rich off of his wine brand that he lost in a divorce in 1990, the real chuck shaw hasn' t seen a penny from the wines which have created such a stir that they named a sales category after it .
bronco controls more than 30, 000 acres of california vineyards. it produces around 20 million cases of wine, though much of it is sold in bulk to other wine companies. more than half of the wine bronco sells is sourced with grapes it controls .
to be completely honest, i hated this red wine. full disclaimer: i do not like merlot. there has only been one merlot that i have fully enjoyed, and that particular merlot is known for not tasting like merlot. from the first sip of charles shaw merlot my taste buds were hit on full impact by a bitter - bomb. as for my assistant - wine drinkers helping me with this project, they did not have the same opinion. they determined the wine to be drinkable with notes of chocolate and cocoa, which is why it isn’t dead last on the list. we decided it was a good wine to drink if you were at a stuffy dinner with older family members, but not something you should drink too much of .
shaw: i didn' t get any of that money. and i haven' t seen a penny since. franzia doesn' t care about me and i stay out of his way .
shaw' s 2005 california chardonnay was judged best chardonnay from california at the commercial wine competition of the 2007 california exposition and state fair. the chardonnay received 98 points, a double gold, with accolades of
best of california
and
best of class
. [ 10 ]
australian wine lovers will recall that bob oatley and philip shaw were a powerful combination during the oatley’s more than four decade ownership of rosemount estate where philip led the winemaking for over twenty years. together they were twice awarded international winemaker of the year among countless other accolades. they were recognised both here and abroad as one of australia’s most successful family wine businesses of the twentieth century .
in 2013 for the first time, americans surpassed the french as the number one consumers of wine in the world. wine is certainly more accessible, and cheaper, than ever .
moran, tim. “ $ 1. 99 wine is hottest deal in dodge. ”
the market is going to need a lot of wine ,
fred franzia said .
leese, 585 wine partners' president, previously served as managing director of beringer blass wine estates (now foster' s wine estates americas) in north america. chief operating officer doug walker served as senior vice president of business strategy and development at foster' s .
it' s okay. it certainly rates as well as any other $ 2 bottles of wine. of which there are almost none ,
said wine critic frank prial .
read more: this segment of u. s. consumers drinks nearly half of the wine
as he turns 60, and less than two months into a second marriage to a woman who manages a decorative arts gallery, about the only things that seem to bother chuck shaw these days about the wine business is that he' s no longer a part of it, and that he doesn' t like the wine brand for which he attempted to gain respect, being sullied .
two - buck chuck shocked the wine world when it was first introduced and was the talk of the industry at a time many vintners were under pressure because of vast stockpiles of wine. last year, two buck chuck shocked the wine world again, beating rivals in taste by winning bragging rights to best california chardonnay at the california state fair' s commercial wine competition .
rutherford ranch vineyards and winery is owned by marko zaninovich. zaninovich also owns asv wines of mcfarland, california. asv provides bulk wine, bottled products and custom services to wine marketers .
though in past years it has flown under the radar screen, winery exchange has billed itself as the
leading global supplier of quality private label wine brands for global wine retailers .
charles shaw wines are made by the bronco wine company based in ceres, california, near modesto. the brand in its present form was born just over a decade ago, when bronco and other producers found themselves harvesting too many grapes. one of the company' s founders, fred franzia, came up with the idea to undercut the competition: he' d make a two - dollar bottle. “he was able to kind of go in and name his price, and come up with this ridiculously inexpensive wine. and over time he just had to figure out how to keep supplying it. not the least of which is, frankly, planting his own vineyards, ” says san francisco chronicle wine editor jon bonne .
i tried to put it all behind me but i never stopped thinking about wine .
i’ll be frank: this wine was available for purchase, but i did not buy it .
the wine group is a leader in the bag - in - the - box category and in the premium wine cask category with corbett canyon and a new offering under the fish eye label .
in canada, the limit for total arsenic in wine is 100 parts - per - billion .
bronco is led by fred franzia, a nephew of ernest gallo. the franzia family (which has no relationship to franzia brand boxed wine) has made wine in california for over 100 years .
their koomooloo vineyard (900 metres) was planted in 1989, with first vintage under philip shaw wines being 2004. located in new south wales’ central west, orange is one of the highest and coolest regions in australia .
fred franzia buys up the trademark and slashes the wine' s price. the $ 1. 99 tag stirs up a slew of rumors about the wine' s quality, some of which aren' t terribly off the mark. the brand is sued for the levels of arsenic in the wine .
brown, corie. “the truth in this wine is elusive, but it sells and sells. ”
, the colloquial moniker isn’t quite as accurate today: the wine usually sells for $ 2. 99
merlot: up to $ 14. 99: 2017 awards | san francisco chronicle wine competition official website
before anybody starts judging me as a wine - drinker, please know that charles shaw is not my first choice. but you know, sometimes as a burgeoning freelance writer, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. when you’re pinching pennies but still feel the need to cut loose (or drunkenly binge on arrested development at home alone with your cats), it’s arguably the best option out there. however, with seven varietals (i. e. grape type) to choose from, i thought to myself— which is the best of the best? that was a question i was most - definitely willing to attempt to answer. so, i called up a few wine - knowledgeable friends, spent just over $ 20 on wine, and got to tasting.
charles shaw is a brand of " extreme value " , bargain-priced wine . largely made from california grapes , charles shaw wines currently include cabernet sauvignon , white zinfandel , merlot , chardonnay , sauvignon blanc , shiraz , valdiguié in the style of beaujolais nouveau , and limited quantities of pinot grigio . these wines were introduced at trader joe 's grocery stores in california at a price of $ 1.99 per bottle , earning the wines the nickname " two buck chuck " and eventually sold 800 million bottles . in 2009 , an international version of chardonnay from australia was introduced in limited stores . prices in states other than california have increased to as much as $ 3.79 per bottle . the price was later raised . as of february 20 , 2017 , a bottle of charles shaw retailed for $ 2.99 in california . the actual wine costs about 30 to 40 percent of the price with the glass , cork and distribution the bigger part of the cost . the cost of shipping two-buck chuck anywhere out of california becomes too high to support it . in april of 2017 , at the san antonio , tx locations , two-buck chuck once again became $ 1.99 . store employees claim that the price is permanent and not a marketing ploy . 
charles shaw is a brand of " extreme value ", bargain-priced wine. largely made from california grapes, charles shaw wines currently include cabernet sauvignon, white zinfandel, merlot, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, valdiguié in the style of beaujolais nouveau, and limited quantities of pinot grigio. these wines were introduced at trader joe's grocery stores in california at a price of $ 1.99 per bottle, earning the wines the nickname " two buck chuck " and eventually sold 800 million bottles. in 2009, an international version of chardonnay from australia was introduced in limited stores. prices in states other than california have increased to as much as $ 3.79 per bottle. the price was later raised. as of february 20, 2017, a bottle of charles shaw retailed for $ 2.99 in california. the actual wine costs about 30 to 40 percent of the price with the glass, cork and distribution the bigger part of the cost. the cost of shipping two-buck chuck anywhere out of california becomes too high to support it. in april of 2017, at the san antonio, tx locations, two-buck chuck once again became $ 1.99. store employees claim that the price is permanent and not a marketing ploy.
charles shaw is a brand of " extreme value ", bargain-priced wine. largely made from california grapes, charles shaw wines currently include cabernet sauvignon, white zinfandel, merlot, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, valdiguié in the style of beaujolais nouveau, and limited quantities of pinot grigio. these wines were introduced at trader joe's grocery stores in california at a price of $ 1.99 per bottle, earning the wines the nickname " two buck chuck " and eventually sold 800 million bottles. in 2009, an international version of chardonnay from australia was introduced in limited stores. prices in states other than california have increased to as much as $ 3.79 per bottle. the price was later raised. as of february 20, 2017, a bottle of charles shaw retailed for $ 2.99 in california. the actual wine costs about 30 to 40 percent of the price with the glass, cork and distribution the bigger part of the cost. the cost of shipping two-buck chuck anywhere out of california becomes too high to support it. in april of 2017, at the san antonio, tx locations, two-buck chuck once again became $ 1.99. store employees claim that the price is permanent and not a marketing ploy.