If you’ve ever shopped at Trader Joe’s you know about their house wine, Charles Shaw, or as it’s affectionately known, Two Buck Chuck. If you haven’t had the pleasure, yes, they actually sell bottles of wine for $2. So how can they sell it so cheap? It turns out it’s all about growing and producing the wine in bulk.
The wine is made by a branch of the Franzia family, makers of the famous boxed wine. Bronco Wine makes Charles Shaw and they grow in the San Joaquin Valley in Cali, which is cheaper than fancy Napa and Sonoma because it gets hotter there. And Charles Shaw also cuts costs by using oak chips rather than oak barrels to age the wine.
Two Buck Chuck is also produced using machines instead of humans, so that makes it cheaper, too. And it’s also packaged in lighter bottles and cartons, so shipping is less than with typical wine. So that’s how you can actually buy a bottle of wine for $2 at TJ’s!