The 2005 Charles Shaw Chardonnay won the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition competition, beating out 250 other California wines. It received a Double Gold and 98 points.
Trader Joe's is a godsend for $5 Rioja rose' and screwtop Gruner Veltliner. But Two Buck Chuck Chardonnay tastes like fermented pencil shavings dosed with corn syrup. The TBC Merlot is fine for Sangria, but for the love of God spend an extra dollar or two on a white wine for cooking.
ABC has the video, which includes Caroline Styne (AOC, Lucques, Suzanne Goin's partner in crime) doing another blind Chardonnay tasting, this one set up by the network. They don't say who won, but the face she makes while swallowing the Charles Shaw looks as if she expected a glass of Evian and got a mouthful of the Los Angeles River instead.
(Thanks to Jonathan Mitchell, sommelier at Pacific Dining Car, for the heads up.)
OMG, I couldn't agree more: TBC is the perfect wine for people that don't know what wine tastes like. And yes, for a buck or two more you can get something ten times better...
Posted by: eric | July 16, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Yes! Overly sweet and ghastly plonk.
Posted by: MaxMillion | July 20, 2007 at 02:47 PM
Lots of wine bloggers have been writing about this controversy. I think that Good Wine Under $20 (http://goodwineunder20.blogspot.com) has a pretty good wrap-up of how the judging actually works. Not that I want to defend Franzia and his crappy wine, but at the very least these State Fair gold medals shouldn't totally be written off...
Posted by: Jill | July 22, 2007 at 09:51 AM
http://goodwineunder20.blogspot.com/
sorry is that link not working in my previous comment? maybe this one will?
Posted by: Jill | July 22, 2007 at 09:53 AM