{image1}Savvy wine drinkers know that often price has nothing to do with taste. Such is the case (pun intended) with Charles Shaw wines, sold exclusively at Trader Joe's grocery stores, for as little as $1.99. Hence the nickname "Two Buck Chuck."
Charles Shaw is considered by novices and experts alike to be decent table wine, but it's undeniably the price tag that's sold five million cases in just a few years. And the Charles Shaw mania only heightened after numerous media outlets conducted "taste tests" where Chuck beat out $50 bottles.
Trader Joe's is an upscale grocery store that's infamous for carrying healthy, unique and nicely priced food and beverages. There are almost 200 stores in the country, with 12 in Illinois (they are easily found around Chicagoland) and chains in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. So why not Wisconsin?
According to Diane O'Connor, Boston-based manager of media relations for Trader Joe's East, Wisconsinites are in the same gondola as many other wine lovers in the country because our closest Trader Joe's -- in Lake Zurich, I'll. -- is only an hour-and-a-half away.
"Many of our customers will drive an hour or more for Charles Shaw wine," says O'Connor.
The Lake Zurich store's assistant manager (or "First Mate" as he's titled in the wacky world of a trader named Joe) David Subacz encourages Milwaukeeans to make the trek. "We're well-stocked with Charles Shaw, but it goes pretty quickly," he says.
In Illinois, it should be christened "Three Buck Chuck" because it sells for $2.99 a bottle due to transportation costs, taxes and various state distribution laws. In some states, the bottles sell for as high as $3.39, which is still dirt cheap for decent vino.
But is it worth the trip?
And why is this wine such a bargain? The story goes: Due to grape over planting in the '90s, there is a massive glut of wine grapes in California, and one day, Fred Franzia -- king of the boxed wine biz -- wondered what happened to all of those high-quality grapes that weren't made into expensive bottles. So, Franzia made a few calls, bought a few tons of surplus grapes and was suddenly making his own Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz for next to nothing, under the name Charles Shaw.
Don't you wish you thought of that?
Surprisingly, Chuck even looks good. It's stored in an expensive-looking bottle and has a cork as opposed to a screw-off cap, traditionally a cheap wine give-away.
Even more disappointing fact for those outside of driving distance, Trader Joes's does not provide mail order or Internet sales. "We explored our options and decided it would be too costly of an option," says O'Connor.
Although introduced just a couple of years ago, Two Buck Chuck is already an urban legend, including a rumor that an airline went out of business by over-purchasing the wine for its first class passengers and another fable claiming that Charles Shaw is an altruistic billionaire who wanted to offer the finer things in life to the less fortunate. (Although the "billionaire" part of the myth is probably true.)
An estimated one million cases of Charles Shaw wine are now sold every month, and Franzia, who controls loads of brands and labels that under-sell the fancy vineyards, says he has only just began his journey. Maybe, if we're lucky, Milwaukee is somewhere near the bottom of his list.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
