Food - Drink
Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck Is Made By An Iconic Wine Family
By LISA CURRAN MATTE
Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck seems almost too good to be true, but like many of the grocery chain’s offerings, Charles Shaw wine, although cheap, is of great quality. The bargain wine has a long and storied history going back a long until it ended up in the hands of an iconic wine family and it hit the shelves of Trader Joe’s as the beloved Two Buck Chuck.
In the 1970s, Charles Shaw, who worked at a Texas bank, was transferred to the bank’s Paris division, which happened to be located behind the Académie du Vin. In Paris, Shaw began a lifelong love of wine, and when he and his wife moved back to the states, they started their own winery in California, producing award-winning wines like their Gamay.
Unfortunately, the American public hadn’t yet discovered wine, and after a divorce and bankruptcy, Shaw was forced to sell his winery to Fred Franzia. Franzia — the grandson of Teresa and Giuseppe Franzia who established the Franzia Wine Company —
started his own wine company, Bronco Wine, and partnered with Trader Joe's to distribute Shaw’s wine at $2 a bottle.