Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan: A Romantic Facebook Timeline
Why Facebook's Falling Share Price Really Doesn't Matter
When you think of the professionals running the world's wine businesses, filthy mouths and public urination are probably not the first character traits to come to mind. But Fred Franzia is no ordinary vintner. CEO of Bronco Wine, now the fourth-largest wine maker in the country, Franzia hasn't let success affect his head ... or his manners. Joel Stein of Business 2.0 magazine recently had the "pleasure" of profiling Franzia in a lengthy piece that describes the brusque Franzia relieving himself against the side of his Jeep, cursing out the competition, and claiming "We can grow [grapes] on asphalt."
Bronco Wine was put on the map with the Charles Shaw brand of wine, affectionately known as "Two Buck Chuck" and available exclusively at privately-held Trader Joe's. The Chardonnay varietal of this bargain-basement-priced beverage recently nabbed a top prize at the 2007 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. The label, which was first available at Trader Joe's in 2002, is now one of the fastest-growing brands in America, selling 5 million cases per year.
Stein quotes Gary Vaynerchuk of Winelibrarytv.com, who notes that while Charles Shaw has hurt some "pricier" brands of wine (say, $8 or $10 a bottle), it has also piqued the collective interest in wine in general. "[Two-Buck Chuck] has helped the industry overall by bringing in new people," Vaynerchuk says. "There are so many fools in the wine industry who are overpriced."
Which brings us to Franzia's next goal -- of seeing a profound shift in the wine industry toward lower prices. He hopes to get restaurants to lower their markups and aims to oversee the creation of affordable bottles of wine created from the same grapes as pricier brands.
While the temptation to serve, say, boxed wine out of a decanter is high, Charles Shaw is kitschy and hip enough that you'll increasingly see it served proudly at cocktail parties. And paraphrasing the wise words of one of my college friends (who was social chair of his fraternity), the more bottles you can buy, the more parties you can have.
Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
9-16-2007 @ 4:24AM
does it matter? said...
This discussion of 2 buck chuck sounds like my college Boone's farm and Mad dog 20/20 days when getting DRUNK was the goal.
Then it was the wine cooler days.....malt will give you one hellacious hangover I learned the hard way........
Thankfully I skipped over the box wines....something about it reminded me of those sleazebag chicks I served in the bar that just drank cheap wine......cheap wine + cheap date = a coyote ugly wake up call I'm sure.
(a whole lotta one armed guys running around after they chewed their own arms off so as not to wake the 'blonde' toothless wino they took home)
But seriously, to really appreciate ANY wine you must have a basis to compare it to.
If all you've had is two buck chuck, Boone's farm, MD 20/20 or boxed 'wine'.......of course you'll swear Two Buck Chuck is wonderful!
Get out there and experiment, don't limit yourself, buy what you can afford and listen to your tastebuds (if you have any).
THEN go back and compare it to Two Buck Chuck and give an opinion.
It takes a little more effort to know the difference between Shiraz, Merlot, Zinfandels, Chardonnay ect than "Strawberry", "Berry Blast" and the like but its WORTH it.
9-16-2007 @ 5:19AM
Kaitlin said...
That is a bloody terrible way to view wine and the US wine industry. It is true that Two Buck Chuck has helped to increase the US per capita consumption of wine by bringing more wine drinkers, but it has also 'cheapened' the image of wine. By openly stating that Bronco wants to put the same quality wine grapes from Charles Shaw into higher priced wines will also steer people away from wine. The fragmentation of the popular premium end of the market (
9-21-2007 @ 10:08AM
Carol said...
I liked the wine, and goes down well-- but its hard on the system. My stomach felt it the next day. Its a good "house" wine but if I were serving with food and for guests with more than appetizers on the patio, I'd choose something else. Its drinkable, but lacks all the good stuff good wine is made of.