2 Buck Chuck

I saw on Dateline that the $2 Charles Shaw table wine is really good. I never tried it, but is it that good? People are buying it by the carloads here in California.

Reply to
Mike
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I have just moved from CA -- and it is available from Trader Joe's Grocery Stores.

It is OK wine - not bad at all, and probably worth about $5-7 during normal, non-recession times.

People are buying it by the carloads simply because at $2 per bottle, it would have to be pretty bad not to be worth it!

Reply to
Bromo

It's reported to be variable, since it's basically various lots of wine from the bulk market. Some of it is OK, some of it is not so OK.

For $2, try a bottle and see what you think. What a few weeks and try some again and see if you like it more or less.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

A better test:

Try a bottle and see what you think, then try another bottle and see what you think. Repeat. I guarantee you will like it better as the night wears on.

Dimitri

Reply to
D. Gerasimatos

oh it comes from the bulk wine stock, thats in the category of Night Train and Mogen David. No wonder why its so cheap. I dont drink wine to get drunk.

Reply to
Mike

Now hold on a moment. Some very good wine has been sloshing around on the California bulk wine market over the last couple of years as a result of the over-production in the late

1990s and economic downturn. Don't assume that wine bought on the bulk market is automatically really bad "industrial" wine. For example, Navarro's Chardonnay Table Wine is a delightful blend of crisp Anderson Valley Chard and fat Santa Barbara Chard out of French Oak - because Navarro bought the Santa Barbara wine on the bulk market.

Ravenswood Vintner's Blends are bulk wine blended with Ravenswood wine.

Some of the Two-Buck has been good, especially earlier-on. It's a lot more variable now.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

I have drunk, in my impetuous youth, Boone's, Night Train Express and MD-20/20 - and all of them were rather ... Nasty. All tended to taste bad, and give you a NASTY headache before getting properly inebriated. I avoided them as soon as $7-9 a bottle was not too much for my budget for wine (at the time, $7 was the price of decent wine, that price point is now ~$10-15).

I have had the so called "Two Buck Chuck" and it wasn't bad - it was comparable to the entry level category when I began drinking better wines, or slightly below that, but nowhere near the depths you claim! It certainly isn't Night Train or MD/20-20, and it is better than any jug-o-wines and box-o-wines I know about that are currently on the market in America.

To the Californians enjoying the inexpensive wine (I moved to New York about

6 months ago) - enjoy it now, since those wines were made from juice that was purchased below cost - and many grape growers will be going out of business - which ought to take that price back up the the $7 range where it will probably be when the market prices equalizes!
Reply to
Bromo

Most of the fine California wineries we have a large percentage of their grapes grown by other people - especially the lower end brands - but under contract and sometimes on the spot market. No shame in that as long at it hits the quality standards of the brand and is properly labeled to indicate the grape origins.

The "2 buck Chuck" phenomenon is only there because many grape growers, especially in the Central Valley, are having to sell below their cost - a double whammy of the recession and over planting in the go-go 1990's.

Changing the topic a bit - I have noticed that a lot of mid-level California wines have dropped in quality in recent years - sometimes over-oaking more delicate Chardonnays and producing Cabs that have WAAAAAY too much alcohol for the amount of body the basic juice has. Anyone else observe this?

Reply to
Bromo

Bromo says,

[after discussion about two-buck chuck]

Actually, I can't claim to have noticed this---if anything, the 2-buck-chuck phenomenon has *raised* the bar for wines which most otherwise "normal" tasters and wine lovers would have disdained.

I can't say that jug "chabis" or "white zinfandel" have improved,either.

Every once in awhile, I "dumpster" dive into jug-wine oblivion, and justify my purchase as mere "beverage alcohol", and not really wine (if it keeps the elder relatives happy, it's OK)----and my tracking of your observation has yielded NOTHING in the way of improvement; meaning:

--this whole crisis of a fine wine "lake" is lost on jug-wine consumers; their wine will not be improved by the excess of quality premium fruit at bargain-basement prices; nor will the "baseline" quality level of their chablis, or other plonk be elevated.

In fact, Gallo and their distributors could possibly raise prices, because the premium producers have raised theirs.

Touche

---Bob

Reply to
RobertsonChai

I had a bottle of it, and couldn't take it it was so bad. I turned it into Sangria and even then, I'm not sure I made the right choice. This stuff is an example of the wine industry's refusal to criticize its own. It's HIGHLY undrinkable. You *might* be able to cook with it but home-made vinegar might be the correct choice.

dcr

Reply to
David Rheault

My experience was clearly that it's quite variable. I've had some inoffensive but otherwise insipid Two-Buck, and I've had some offensive Two-Buck. It just depends on what got blended into the particular bottling. The buzz is that they're into the dregs now.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Was in the wine sales/marketing business years ago and got to know many of the people in the business. Fred Franzia has made the Napa crowd mad cause he came up with a smart way to make money on the excessive varietal production in the industry and at the same time providing consumers with some very good bargains. Also Fred is a valley not Napa guy. Funny thing is Mondavi sold a lake of his plonk read jug wine quality red and white table wines at terribly inflated prices by connecting his Napa origins to those so so valley jug wines. The she she crowd in Napa didn't get upset at that cause he was one of theirs.

Some other real bargains today are the Australian CS and Shiraz-particularly like Rosemount. There are others-having a Rosemount 01 CS now-very good for about $7 a bottle. The Aussies are really gearing up their production-now they are about to pass Italian wines in terms of volume-French still leads in dollar volume. I expect the Aussies to continue to rapidly expand their market position with their superb quality and low prices-I sell medical systems now and no connection with the wine business-had to make some money for a change.

Reply to
butch burton

I would imagine - the $2 a bottle is a phenomenon of an over-supply of grape juice. I would think that the oversupply is about drunk, and may be smaller going-forward. Fun while it lasted. Inexpensive table wine of medium quality is nice to have!

Reply to
Bromo

Well, I'm willing to concede that there was a lot of it and perhaps the quality did vary over the spectrum. I have no idea if they kept some medium quality stuff in California and sent the really bad stuff to the East coast, but what I had just didn't do it for me. I was looking forward to trying it so I had a good attitude coming in. Surely, there could be other uses for the "wine lake" for this is not the stuff that leaves novice wine drinkers hoping for more. It has been brilliantly marketed (by Trader Joes) though I will give them that.

dcr

Reply to
David Rheault

Based upon the posts in this thread I went into Trader Joe's today to get a bottle. I noticed they had a LOT of it in stock. They have all the cases stacked up near the front. So I took it home, popped the synthetic cork, and let it breath for awhile (haha). I took a whiff and I noticed it had a scent reminiscent of Ripple. I took a sip and this stuff is putrid. I'm glad I only spent $2 on it. I only drank

4 oz. of it and my head was spinning. This is great wine to get drunk on if I was an alcoholic. Looks like I should have bought a bottle of grape juice with that 2 bucks.
Reply to
Mike

Mike wrote: I only drank

Like I said, they're apparently into the dregs. Though I used a couple of bottles to make Glogg, it was just fine. Hmmm.... that reminds me, maybe I need to make another batch of Glogg this weekend...

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Don't say I didn't warn you Mike! As you've attested, it's not even drinkable nor will it help if you try to turn it into Sangria as I tried to!! Perhaps to make amends you could march right back to Trader Joe's and buy yourself something drinkable? You'll be glad you did. I generally have a Rule of Thumb--to go out and buy a good bottle of wine if the last one I had didn't measure up.

dcr

Reply to
David Rheault

I was pleased when I went bargain hunting at my local Cost Plus, it's in the same complex as Trader Joes. I rather liked the J. Lohr Riverstone Chardonnay ($9) and picked up several sparklers at $8-$12 (Mumm Napa Valley, Piper Sonoma, etc.).

Cost Plus is actually quite a nice wine source, excellent selection and very good pricing.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

This wine is so bad it is totally undrinkable. I haven't tasted a wine this bad in years. Instead of throwing it out I set it outside of the dumpster last night. When I went to work this morning it was gone. A homeless bum got his buzz for the day.

Reply to
SanDiegoFunkDasddy

Too bad! The very first ones I got weren't too bad for table wine. It was equal to the Mondavi stuff I had had a few times. I much prefer saving up and getting Stag's Leap SLV as a splurge, myself!

Reply to
Bromo

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