Here’s an article on its rise. You’ll note that when it began its meteoric ascent as a widely consumed table wine in the early 2000’s ( one of my brothers was an early adopter), CA as a state was in the midst of a glut of decent-quality wine grapes. Hence the Charles Shaw wines could be produced cheaply from decent stock and thus was surprisingly palatable for the price.
When the glut passed and good-quality grapes were no longer so cheaply found in large quantities, quality ( it is argued by many ) declined. Which is to say the “three-buck-chuck” of today is considered by many to be inferior to the once tolerable “two-buck-chuck” of the past.
Factoid that may be of interest: when “two buck Chuck” first started getting popularized in the early 2000s, there was a rumor going around that the low price was linked to 9/11.
If memory serves, the story was that Charles Shaw was actually a pricier wine that exclusively sold to a major airline, but post-9/11 rules required some sort of change (screwcaps vs corks? smaller bottles?) and so they sold all their existing stock to Trader Joe’s.
The link Tamerlane posted notes extremely fast selling early on. I absolutely know people who bought cases of it due to that rumor; the assumption was that supplies of this “underpriced” wine would be limited.
That’s actually a piece of cooking conventional wisdom I don’t agree with. There are a number of times that I will use wine or beer I wouldn’t drink in my cooking: I would never drink Budweiser, but if someone brings it to my house for a party, I’ll use it later for boiling hot dogs or shrimp. The same with wine that I wouldn’t drink, I’ll use it for flavored water in a recipe.
The quality varied quite a bit, but was occasionally excellent.
The 2005 Chardonnay won Best Chardonnay at California’s State Fair in 2007. It was indeed excellent Chardonnay at any price, and a steal at $1.99/bottle.
Also old crow whiskey. Old crow is the least bad cheap liquor available. Prophecy.
Seriously though, if anyone wants cheap wine that actually tastes good, get arbor mist or boones farm. I’ve had 2/3 buck chuck, and it was very bitter.
I’m sorry – I was actually just trying to point out that the urban legend existed because folks that never heard it might be interested. Didn’t mean to give the impression it might actually be true. I knew it was on Snopes, just didn’t want to dig the link up at the time.
