Two Buck Chuck: The right wine and the right pasta…

Made dinner with my wife last night. Home-made spaghetti and meatballs.

The wine was a Merlot from Trader Joe’s - a very nice brand (they are famous for their “2 Buck Chuck”

What is this you say? Never heard of it?

Even the New York Times wine critic sees it as a sort of blessing:

“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.

“Two Buck Chuck” has become the stuff of urban legend here in the Northwest, including the story that an airline that had gone out of business by over-purchasing the wine for its first class passengers.

There’s also the story that Charles Shaw is a bighearted billionaire who wanted to expose the proletariat to the finer things in life, a perfect fit here at The Frugal Connoisseurs.

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.

And Charles Shaw? Does he really exist?

It’s a wine label owned by Fred Franzia, a distant relative on the Gallo family vine. He’s a reclusive businessman considered a major “pain in the neck” to California’s wine mogels.

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: when asked about them, he replied, “We have others up our sleeve we think are even better coming out.”
The Frugal Connoisseurs can’t wait.
He also controls well over 30 square miles of California vineyards. And he thinks big. Next he plans to take on invading Australian wine makers. Two Buck Chuck Down Under?

Fairdinkum, Mate