Two Buck Chuck: Grapes of Wrath

As I sit at my computer, enjoying a lovely glass of shiraz, I couldn't help but wonder, where did this come from? And, how could it possibly cost a mere $2.99? Generally, if I think something is too good to be true, I'm usually right. And, it looks like I'm right again.

Wine produced under the Charles Shaw label from Trader Joe's, more commonly known as "Two Buck Chuck" is less the divine miracle that it appears to be. It is produced cheaply through the exploitation of illegal immigrant farm laborers and neighboring farms that overproduced wine in the '90s -- a sort of wine "bubble" not unlike the "tech bubble" and our more recent "housing bubble." So, the bubble burst, the value of wine and land in the San Joaquin Valley dropped, and Fred Franzia (that's right, of Franzia boxed wine fame -- actually, that was his father, but same family) swooped in and bought it all up. The reason the wine is so cheap is through the miracle of vertical integration -- he owns everything, even the porta-johns. At "Domaine Franzia" it is literally all about money -- the quality of wine is a mere afterthought. They grow what consumers will drink, and that is all. (The articles I found don't give much of an impression of what the San Joaquin Valley now resembles, but for those who are readers of John Steinbeck, I think you can use your imagination.)

To read more about Fred Franzia and his pithy witticisms (like, "terroir don't mean shit"), go here.

To read about vineyard workers in Napa and the San Joaquin Valleys, go here.

To fall in love with the San Joaquin Valley, and then lament what it has recently become, read "East of Eden."