These days you can get an entire bottle for less money than a
shot of good tequila.
These days you can get an entire bottle for less money than a shot of good tequila.
A surge of inexpensive bottles of wine, such as the popular Charles Shaw “Two-Buck Chuck” has incurred a change in the wine industry – from grape growers to wineries, sellers to consumers – and local vintners have taken notice of the trend.
With the changes come both good and bad aftereffects, according to Joe Zanger, owner of Zanger Vineyards at Casa de Fruta.
“Now any person can afford an OK bottle of wine,” Zanger said. “National responsible consumption has greatly increased. People are now drinking wine with meals and enjoying it as a food. It’s been good for the industry.”
The bargain bottle phenomenon started about five or six years ago when grape prices were extremely high in California, so farmers began planting their own grapes in mass quantities thinking they could make a lot of money, Zanger said.
New close-spraying trellis and water systems allowed growers to plant twice the amount of grapes per acre. This caused an over-supply of grapes being sold, therefore causing a glut in the market, he said.
These growers then contracted out with wineries and corporations, who were able to purchase the grapes at a cheaper price and begin selling bottles of generally good quality wine at bargain basement prices, Zanger said.
“Now people are less apt to spend $20 when they can get it in the store for $1.99,” he said. “And they’re drinking it because the quality is generally good.”
Zanger Vineyards, which has been at Casa de Fruta since 1972, grows their own grapes and has not reaped the benefits of the cheap grape prices.
Now the challenge is competing with discount stores such as Trader Joe’s selling the Two-Buck Chuck and grocery stores such as Safeway hawking $3 and $4 bottles.
“We’ve felt the impact,” Zanger said. “We either have to lower our prices to move the product or convince the buyer that our product is worth paying twice as much as what you get in the grocery store.”
Running specials, such as the current $3.99 for a bottle of Gewurztraminer 2000, a light white wine, keep them in the game while also offering higher quality bottles topping off at $16.99.
Small wineries who grow their own grapes, along with grape growers who are being paid less for their grapes, are the ones who have suffered with the boom in cheap wine.
After 11 years in Hollister, Flint Wine Cellars owner Scott Flint said he hasn’t been affected by the craze because his loyal customer base expects taste first, value second, he said.
His bottles range in price from $10 up to $36.
Flint produces about 1,500 cases of a variety of wines annually, shipping throughout California and into New Mexico and Washington D.C.
The cheap wine craze has helped in that it starts a consumer in at the ground level, subsequently whetting their appetite and piquing their curiosity to try a pricier brand, Flint said.
“They start exploring more expensive wineries,” Flint said. “A lot of people who purchase $5 bottles of wine know what they’re gonna get – which isn’t the best.”
Selling bottles of wine from $3.99 all the way up to a whopping $149 a bottle allows local culinary maven Dorothy McNett to keep all her bases covered.
While her most popular selling price point is between $12.99 and $19.99, she concedes that she sells “a ton of” the Proprietors Choice $3.99 red table wine out of Sonoma County.
Whether the cheap stuff is actually causing consumers’ taste buds to depreciate depends on the consumer and their palate’s prior history concerning wine, McNett said.
“People who shop discount houses will always shop discount houses. People who buy cheap wine will always buy cheap wine,” McNett said. “But it brings people in… with the hopes that people will step up to something better.”
Stepping up to a higher price range and becoming a more dignified wine connoisseur is lost on Granite Bay resident Bill Carli, who spent Wednesday afternoon partaking in Casa de Fruta’s complimentary wine tasting bar.
As far as he’s concerned, if it tastes good then that’s all that matters. And if it’s cheap then that’s even better, he said.
“All the swirling in the glass and the aroma stuff does nothing for me,” Carli said. “In all honesty, I can’t tell the difference between the expensive wine and the inexpensive wine. And I do drink Two-Buck-Chuck. I think it’s great.”
