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Does anyone in here know how 2-buck chuck comes to be int he bottle? The story is quite interesting, and I think that more than a few people will swallow their tongues when they learn.
As I am told (by Chef Maxwell at Western Culinary Institute): Charles Shaw had a nasty divorce, in which he was forced to liquidate the vineyard. Now, clearly, the vines don't just disappear, so who should come along, but Franzi, who immediately took the grapes to put them into BOX WINE (mmmmm...yummy). Now, Franzi's accountants apparently came to him and said, "hey buddy, if we throw this in 750ml bottles, we make a $1 more/ gallon" or something like that...so he did it, money talks.
Nothing special yet, lets continue. In the bottle Franzi keeps the Charles Shaw name, and is signed an exclusive contract with Trader Joe's to sell this wine. Is there enough wine produced fromt he old Shaw vineyard to stock TJs? No, there is not...
now the side note:
The most expensive wines produced are often not all put onto the market, because controlling the amount of wine, despite the amount created, is a way of controlling the market prices. The rest of that good wine is not simply thrown down the drain, much of it is sold to bulk wine producers....
Ol' Franzi, in order to meet his Trader Joe demand, around harvest and production time, rolls around with a big tanker truck and buys some very premium wines at bulk prices (10,000 gallons at a time), and then, the nerve, stuffs these wines into bottles labeled Charles Shaw. Maybe not the most elegant of practices, but the bottom line is this:
Before you knock the chuck, taste it, you may be getting a $1.99 bottle of wine, but you may be getting a $70 or $80 bottle of wine as well. Chef Maxwell recommends buying a bottle, going to the car, cracking it, tasting it, and if it is good, buy AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, because you just scored the deal of lifetime...
Good luck ya'll...but down judge a wine by its label....
As I am told (by Chef Maxwell at Western Culinary Institute): Charles Shaw had a nasty divorce, in which he was forced to liquidate the vineyard. Now, clearly, the vines don't just disappear, so who should come along, but Franzi, who immediately took the grapes to put them into BOX WINE (mmmmm...yummy). Now, Franzi's accountants apparently came to him and said, "hey buddy, if we throw this in 750ml bottles, we make a $1 more/ gallon" or something like that...so he did it, money talks.
Nothing special yet, lets continue. In the bottle Franzi keeps the Charles Shaw name, and is signed an exclusive contract with Trader Joe's to sell this wine. Is there enough wine produced fromt he old Shaw vineyard to stock TJs? No, there is not...
now the side note:
The most expensive wines produced are often not all put onto the market, because controlling the amount of wine, despite the amount created, is a way of controlling the market prices. The rest of that good wine is not simply thrown down the drain, much of it is sold to bulk wine producers....
Ol' Franzi, in order to meet his Trader Joe demand, around harvest and production time, rolls around with a big tanker truck and buys some very premium wines at bulk prices (10,000 gallons at a time), and then, the nerve, stuffs these wines into bottles labeled Charles Shaw. Maybe not the most elegant of practices, but the bottom line is this:
Before you knock the chuck, taste it, you may be getting a $1.99 bottle of wine, but you may be getting a $70 or $80 bottle of wine as well. Chef Maxwell recommends buying a bottle, going to the car, cracking it, tasting it, and if it is good, buy AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, because you just scored the deal of lifetime...
Good luck ya'll...but down judge a wine by its label....
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Tue, January 17, 2006 - 8:19 PMUhh, no, not really.
The Charles Shaw name has been owned by Bronco/Franzi for a very long time. It had long since fallen out of use.
The wine is blended, but it's still made in batches because they're dealing in such large quantities. So, you'll get some better and some worse, but none of it's just some $80 wine that got liquidated, sorry. -
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Tue, January 17, 2006 - 8:34 PM"The wine is blended, but it's still made in batches because they're dealing in such large quantities. So, you'll get some better and some worse, but none of it's just some $80 wine that got liquidated, sorry."
Indeed! Not only will the wine not be an $80 example, but the grapes it's made from will be almost exclusively from California's Central Valley (the bulk wine capital of the US) NOT from the far more prestigious vineyards of Napa (In fact, one of the reasons Bronco and Fred Franzia have been in and out of California courtrooms so frequently the past three years or so is due to the fact that while the winery "address" he bought is located in Napa and he sells the wine labeled "Napa", no Napa-grown grapes are actually included in the blend.)
The really amusing thing about the whole "Charles Shaw" saga is that when the Shaws actually owned the winery they were best known for making California "Beaujolais". Hardly the sort of thing anyone would have paid top dollar for at any time! ;-) -
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Tue, January 17, 2006 - 8:41 PMYep. Actually, he was trying to take it to the Sup Court, heard anything about his efforts? I'm guessing nothing's changed since, well, notihng's changed. :)
I really have been meaning to run a blind tasting with Charles Shaw and Franzia box wine, and see if anyone could tell them apart, but then I'd be stuck with some of each, and I really don't care to bother drinking either. Life's too short. -
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Wed, January 25, 2006 - 1:10 PM"Yep. Actually, he was trying to take it to the Sup Court, heard anything about his efforts? I'm guessing nothing's changed since, well, notihng's changed. :) "
A few days ago the court declined to hear his appeal without comment, refusing to review a California court ruling that upheld the 2000 state law limiting the use of the "Napa" appellation or other Napa wording on labels to wines that contain at least 75% Napa grown grapes.
You can read a brief article on this here: today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx
Maybe now this ridiculous urban legend will finally die the death it deserves! But I doubt it...;-) -
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Wed, January 25, 2006 - 4:48 PMprobably not. Too many people equate "wines I like" with "wines that cost a lot."
Many people like the soft, ripe, approachable nature of agricultural/bulk wine. They've just been conditioned to believe that more money means a wine they'll automatically like more. So, when they taste something cheap that they like, they just have to believe it wasn't supposed to be cheap.
And of course, a lot of wineries have made a lot of money charging a lot for wine that isn't all that expensive or hard to make, so often the cheap wine and the expensive wine aren't really all that different. There is a fair ammount of wine from the Napa Valley floor (the flat area in the bottom) that tastes a lot like the stuff in the central valley, but because it has that 'Napa Valley" AVA cache, it gets to be priced higher. Not all the real estate that's in the AVA is going to be the stuff that makes for really fine, elegant wines, so enough crap does come out of the valley that most folks will never figure out why the really hard to find stuff is actually worth more to the folks who know what they're buying, compared to those who just want a status label to impress people.
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Re: Not to burst the bubble...
Thu, March 9, 2006 - 7:23 PMFirst of all, if you are going to tell a story PLEEEEEEEZ try to get the facts straight. Yes there was a divorce between the Shaw family years ago and the Franzia family bought the name and tiny facility at a bargain price, that's what they do. They are one of the best at what they do. They however do not own or make the Franzia Box Wine. The only thing they have in common with that company is the name. Their father sold it off to Coca-Cola in 1974 against the childrens wishes long before they produced "box wine".
Charles Shaw does not advertise themselves as a Napa grown product, although bottled there (next to the Napa Cty. Airport). It states on the label that it's a California appellation. Sure they buy grapes on the bulk market, but the family also owns 40,000 + acres of vineyards in California (they are the largest owner of vineyard acreage in California).
Trader Joe's approached the Franzia family about a private label and what became of this marriage is 2 Buck Chuck. They now sell around 11 million cases a year, and growing as they open stores.
Yes, when you get a bottle of wine from the Franzia family, you get a bargain in a bottle on all of their brands. They own massive amounts of land in California and DO NOT overprice their wines. Their goal is to get everyone in America drinking wine at the dinner table like the folks in Europe.
Just to let the world know is that the 3 owners of Bronco Wine Co. ( the parent company ) is that there are 13 children involved in the business waiting in the wings to to keep the legacy and values going strong.
I was a true wine snob at one time, always looking for a value. I have run fine wine shops over the years, but always look for value. That's why I went to work for the company against the wishes of my wine snob friends but have been much happier for it. Everyday wines at great prices is what they bring to the table or party.
Chef Maxwell has the sory 1/2 correct but a value is a value.
