|
Have you often wondered what happened
to the two buck chuck- the Californian wine selling
for Under $2? Well, Charles Shaw has completed five
years and sold 300 million bottles during this period.
Here is a report by MSNBC.
“We’re not out to gouge people,”
says Fred Franzia, owner of the company producing the
label.. “What I would like to see is every consumer
be able to afford to have wine on the table every day
and not feel insecure about it.”
Last year, Two Buck Chuck — available
only in the Trader Joe’s grocery chain and priced
at $1.99 in California, accounted for at least 8 percent
of California wine sold in-state, said Jon Fredrikson,
who tracks wine shipments.
The result — along with the cute
“critter” labels and more user-friendly
packaging like boxes and screw caps — has helped
knock a little of the starch out of the industry, said
the wine industry consultant
Michael Mondavi, founder of Folio Fine
Wine Partners, a Napa Valley-based importer and producer
of high-end wines, takes the wine-glass-half-full approach
to the Franzia effect.
“I think Two Buck Chuck has helped to make people
aware that wine is not just for special occasions,”
says Mondavi, son of California wine country pioneer
Robert Mondavi and a longtime friend of Franzia “I
also believe that the vast majority of the people who
originally start buying Two Buck Chuck within a period
of a year trade up to better wines and enjoy better
wines on a more regular basis.”
Making wine is expensive from the ground
up, but Franzia owns a lot of ground — 40,000
acres is the common estimate. He won’t say. He
also owns the crushing and bottling plants and has its
own distribution company.
Until now, another company has supplied
the bottles. But Franzia’s latest idea is to fix
that by building a glass container plant near his Napa
Valley bottling facility in a business park near the
Napa County Airport.
For instance: “He says no wine
is worth over $10,” says Mondavi, whose family’s
wines include the new I’M line that runs from
$13 to $20. “I say, ’Yeah, you’re
right Fred, unless they’re my wines because I’ve
seen you buy them.’
Read full story on http://www.msnbc.msn.com
|
