Now, cheap beer? That’s a different story. Life is too short to drink cheap beer. But Trader Joe’s also has some great tasting beer. I especially like the Winterfest.

I had a wine tasting. My Hawaiian friends preferred the Shaw over the Shafer. The Shafer was young and strong. The Shaw is blended to drink right now! The Shaw Chard is to me “instant Headache Charodanny”. That s no dig however, because so is Edna Valley and Gloria Ferrara (sp).

There was a lenghtly feature story on Mr. Franzia in the Wine Spectator this month and after feading it, and being a businessman, I can say I admire the man. Over 300 18 wheelers hauling grapes, (and they are his trucks) is impressive.

-30-

sh, plus a bottle Shafer Cab and Rombauer Chard.

CHEERS!

PEACE!!!

Couple things, YES it is TRUE that vats vary. When you find a particuar bottle from a lot at the local TJ’s especially good, get a few cases. Just look at the case box it came in, the date and lot #’s can be clearly seen.

Two: My great cousin is a famous wine connoisseur and author of many wine guides (also an MD). Some in series, some alone. His wine cellar contains bottles I could live on if sold. I don’t see his family often but my parents told me they played a joke on him & brought over a few bottles of 2BC…knowing he would break out the good stuff. Well his opinion was something to the sort of 2BC isn’t at all bad and would take it over more known, costly wines as an all around table wine.

I like 2BC…especially when I’m tired..kickingback watching a movie or tv and a brew or a couple mixed drinks doesn’t sound good.

The reason we have this wine right now is that there is a glut of unsold wine on the market—some from very well known producers.

When you own a winery, you make a certain amount of wine each year. In good years, it all sells. In bad years, it doesn’t, and you have lots and lots of leftover stock just sitting there—bringing you no revenue.

So Bronco buys the wine used in “2 Buck Chuck” (2BC) from a variety of wineries who need to get rid of their wines for cashflow reasons—and therein lies the problem:

You can get a great bottle of 2BC, and a lousy bottle of 2BC—it all depends on who Bronco bought the wine from.

Once the wine market picks back up, the better wineries will go back to selling most of their stock. At that point they’re not going to *need* to sell it cheap to Bronco—which means the quality of 2BC is going to go down, once the overall market picks up.

In other words, as soon as the market improves and more folks buy wines for $14 a bottle, the producers will no longer sell off their $14/bottle wine to Trader Joe’s $2 a bottle. You’ll be getting the same wine costing a lot more with the “designer label”.

In the meantime, if you find a really tasty batch of 2BC, don’t be afraid to stock up. Just realize that the next shipment that comes in probably won’t taste the same.

Larry

PS None of your “Urban Ledgends” are true - it is just good cheap wine form California

Thanks