Friday, July 13, 2007

The Price of Gold

Apparently the cliché “You get what you pay for” doesn’t apply to the wine we’ve all come to know as Two Buck Chuck, at least not to the judges at the Commercial Wine Competition at the California State Fair. The dirt-cheap 2005 chard took top honors in a blind tasting at this year’s competition, beating out a few hundred other wines—the only other chardonnay to snag a double gold was from Wente Winery (goes for about $14/bottle). We’re all for uncovering a great value, but the last time we tasted Two Buck, it didn’t exactly leave us craving more. If you're curious, head to your local Trader Joe’s and see for yourself.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7/13/2007 7:03 PM

    Two Buck Chuck is great...for cooking.

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  2. phil varner7/13/2007 11:06 PM

    Well, considering TBC is just "whatever we could get cheap", the quality varies a lot. I doubt the quite-saavy company just picked a random bottle from the shelves for the competition, considering some of the juice they bottle sells for quite a bit more under more prestigious labels.

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  3. Anonymous7/14/2007 2:14 PM

    I've bought Two Buck Chuck several times in a pinch, and it's never been great, but I usually figure you can't expect much for $2. But they're obviously doing something right with the way the stuff sells.

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  4. Anonymous7/14/2007 3:23 PM

    Price tag and buzz go a long way in winning hearts and minds, at least in the short term. Personally, I like to see upsets in these kinds of tastings. That's not to say I'm not surprised by the results. After trying it once (because of buzz), I've never bothered with TBC again. It is really hard to believe that it could stand up to or surpass so many other California wines. Makes you wonder about what it was up against.

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