Has anyone tried Charles Shaw merlot, AKA “Two-Buck Chuck”? NPR had a story on it, and they said it was quite drinkable. Have any Dopers actually tried this stuff?
Hell, if it’s any good it might be worth putting in a cool dark storage place for a few years.
I haven’t tried it, but I have read that Charles Shaw doesn’t usually sell that merlot for two bucks. A “wine expert” I spoke to a while back said they were dumping inventory. They picked Trader Joe’s to dump it on because of demographics–they’re trying to create a market for other Charles Shaw fermented grape products.
I’m not sure if that’s true, but it sounds plausible to me. Knock yourself out and tell us the results.
IIRC from the NPR report, they bought a bunch of surplus grapes for an extremely low price; so they are able to sell it very cheaply. (Seems there’s such a grape surplus here that many farmers are letting their grapes rot on the vine because they lose less money that way than by picking them.)
I don’t drink nearly enough. I guess I need people around to remind me or something. But I’ll give it a try when I remember to. In the meantime, anyone who has tried it please let me and Duke know how it is! 
I’m in a cooking group, and we had a get together on Sunday. One of the wines served was a Charles Shaw.
Now, I don’t drink wine, so I didn’t taste it. And I wouldn’t know if it was good or not. But the hostess who provided it said she loved it, and one of the other ladies said she regularly was buying it, too. Everyone who was drinking it that night seemed to be okay with it.
The story I heard about the wine (from these ladies) was that it was American Airlines wine, and since 9/11 outlawing corkscrews, they had to get rid of it somehow. Has urban legend written all over it, now that you’re talking about surplus grapes, but it’s a good tale.
I’d say go for it. Even if it’s crap, so what? You’re out 2 bucks!
Interesting article. It doesn’t really say how good it is, but it does say:
which implies it’s not bad,.
Can’t wait to try it. (But I will, because I’m such a procrastinator.)
It’s ok table wine. I bought a little from Trader Joe’s and then bought some more. The Sauvignon Blanc is pleasant, if a little apple-y. The Merlot is good.
Not all crappy wine is cheap. Not all cheap wine is crap.
I want to try the cabernet. I never seem to be at the store on delivery day. It goes for $2.99 here in Chicago. Yesterday afternoon the local store got in 300 mixed cases. By 8:30pm they only had 6 left. They are expecting 500 cases this Saturday. Maybe if I camp out, a la concert-going, I can snag a bottle or two.
Damn NPR.
That’s good to hear. I swung by Trader Joe’s and got a case of merlot. Hey if it’s bad I’m only out $24, eh?
[wine snob alert]
Here’s the deal with the Charles Shaw line of wines. In the past year, California’s lesser wine growing regions have produced a huge glut of grapes. Bronco winery, under its Charles Shaw label, is mass producing wines from those grapes. As a result of the mass production, one weeks Shaw Merlot can be COMPLETELY different from the next week’s. It really hits me more like a beaujolais nouveau than a merlot at all. It tastes young. Very, very young.
All in all, it makes a good table wine for restaurants or heavy wine consumers, but it is by no means a “quality” wine. It is decent. Good for the price, but overall, only decent.
[/wine snob alert]
A friend of mine in San Francisco sent me an article about “Two-buck Chuck” but I haven’t found any here in Texas. (Not that I have looked all that hard.) My friend said she hadn’t tried it so she couldn’t tell me how it is.
I guess my urban legend radar is pretty well tuned, then. (as I was typing my original post, I considered checking snopes to see if I was right, but was too lazy)
Enjoy the wine, and report back!
I’m incredibly lazy about drinking alcohol. I have some Charles Shaw merlot, but when will I drink it? I still have a couple of smoked salmon fillets, and those are good with beer; so I’ll not be drinking the wine with it. Of course, I’ll nned to go get some beer.
banks: No wine snob, I. The best I can do is decide if it tastes good or not. But I do like beaujolais (usually with roast turkey), and it sounds like 2BC is drinkable.
I’ll let people know what I think of it when I finally open a bottle…
I haven’t tried 2BC, but I’ve found that most of the time, when Trader Joe’s says things like ‘unbelievable bargain at this price’ and generally talk up the $2-4 bottles they sell, the wine is usually drinkable.
-lv
LordVor: I think you’re right…some time ago, we had a Trader Joe’s Appreciation thread and most of us came to the conclusion that we’d never eaten anything we got from Trader Joe’s that we regretted. If Trader Joe’s has it, it must be OK.
Damn, I miss Trader Joe’s.
Every time I go to Trader Joe’s I tell a worker that there should be a store in Bellingham, WA (where I want to move).
I’m very lazy about drinking alcohol. Why open a beer when there’s perfectly good water in the fridge? But I do open a beer from time to time. Wine, on the other hand, takes me longer to get to. But sometimes I can find an occasion to open one.
Last night I went over to Shayna and Spiny Norman’s place. Why not take a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck merlot? None of us had tried it, and it seemed like a good opportunity.
We all agreed it was quite good, especially considering the price. It was a little on the sweet side, but tasty. Definitely worth $1.98!
I bought some in December, it was very nice, tastes like a $6 or $7 wine & cost $1.99 per bottle. I see alot of people getting/giving it as gifts, if it they were actually giving a real gift