Cheap Wines Charles Shaw and Oak Leaf Succeed
California Produced Wine Bargains Found at Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's
Oct 5, 2008
Cheap wines are fast becoming stars in the vintner’s constellation, led by the Charles Shaw label sold at Trader Joe’s and new entry Oak Leaf, recently introduced to the shelves of retailing giant Wal-Mart. The world’s wine aristocracy isn’t thrilled, but this wave of blended bargains appears to be a rising tide around the world.
Fred Franzia is the originator of the movement, having developed, as head of Bronco Wine Company methods for blending Charles Shaw’s offerings of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. Introduced at specialty supermarket Trader Joe’s in early 2003 and sold nowhere else, Two-Buck Chuck, as it is affectionately called, originally sold for $1.99 a bottle, with a traditional distinguished label and a real cork.
In 2008, priced at about $3.50 a bottle on the east coast of the United States and less in the west, Trader Joe’s sells about six million cases a year. That’s 72 million bottles of cheap wine derided by many ‘experts’ like Mike Steinberger. Steinberger, writing in Slate Magazine in July, 2003, shortly after the Shaw label appeared, said succinctly, “It sucks.”
Despite Steinberger’s flippant review, happy wine drinkers flocked to Trader Joe’s to buy it by the case, posting comments of approval and encouragement on the Internet. Derogatory comments also appeared, but were lost in a blizzard of praise for this simple table wine, the brainchild of Franzia, who is openly disdainful of wine snobs, critics and even his fellow wine executives.
In Wine Business Monthly’s issue of February, 2007, Franzia is quoted, “We’re seeing the unraveling of the myth that wine has to be costly to be good. Enormous availability of good wine, efficient production programs and the willingness to narrow margins, to make these wines available to the American public, are all factors in making these great bargains.”
Wal-Mart Chooses E & J Gallo
In Business2.0 magazine, on September 7, 2007, Joel Stein wrote that Franzia was close to a deal with Wal-Mart’s to provide their entry into the cheap wine area; however, that harvest went to Fanzia’s cousins at E&J Gallo, the nation’s largest wine producer. Bronco is number five on that list.
It was inevitable that Wal-Mart would begin selling wine, because the size of the market is too tempting to ignore. According to WineBusiness.com, using statistics furnished by The Neilson Company, in 2007 wine accounted for $5.3 billion in sales.
With more than 4,000 stores in the United States, including Sam’s Club and other entities, Wal-Mart opens the way for massive Oak Leaf sales. Oak Leaf is selling for less than three dollars a bottle, affirming Wal-Mart’s well-know affinity for driving a hard bargain and delivering a good bargain to the consumer.
Detractors of Charles Shaw and Oak Leaf will have their say, but both wines have been honored in blind taste tests. Shaw’s chardonnay won double gold at the 2007 California State Fair’s commercial wine competition. Oak Leaf chardonnay won gold in 2008 at the Florida State International Wine Competition.
Cheap Wine Probably Means New Language
Sipping and judging wine has for decades been a bastion of snooty exclamations and highflying orations, even on a web site called cheapwineratings.com. Consider this, about a bottle of Jean-Luc Colombo Les Abeilles Cotes du Rhone: “The nose is a little tight, but much more intense and interesting than I was expecting from such a bargain wine. The bouquet has a smoky oak quality surrounding blackberry, rhubarb, a hint of strawberry and tobacco.” All that for a bottle of wine costing under seven dollars.
Probably not as verbose as the traditional wine commentator, here’s what Wal-Mart’s customers must be saying about three dollar a bottle Oak Leaf: “This stuff tastes good. Let’s go get some more.”
