This week’s New Yorker magazine features a profile of Fred Franzia, the owner of Bronco Wine Co., which makes the Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) wine sold at Trader Joe’s. The article isn’t anything new; just about every profile of Franzia has shown him to be as smart as he is crude and gruff. One minute he’s making a sound, tactical and likely-to-be-wildly-profitable business decision, and the next he’s laughing hysterically about an owl potentially shitting on the journalist.
And, of course, the article is sprinkled with the voices of other winemakers and wine experts such as Karen MacNeil, who make no secret of their feelings about Franzia. To say they hate him is putting it mildly.
There are two reasons why. The first is that Franzia isn’t selling snake oil, like they are. He’s just selling wine. The second is that Franzia is the most successful version of the vast majority of the world’s winemakers: a laid-back farmer who happens to make some decent-tasting booze, and is smarter at marketing and selling it – an insane amount of it, actually – than anyone else.
A straight shooter and a good businessperson? Sounds like the guy to side with.
For now, let’s just consider the first point. Winemakers and wine writers who try to sell the same old story of the land, the soil and the climate are mostly selling bullshit. It doesn’t matter whether a wine sells for $10 or $200 – the costs that went into making it are roughly the same.
Now, if you’re one of those winemakers selling wine for $200/bottle that only cost you $10 to make, you’d be pretty upset if someone like Franzia came along, pointing out that it’s possible to make something nearly as good as your wine and sell it for a fraction of the price. He doesn’t just cut into your market share, he exposes you for what you are: full of shit.
But what really makes Franzia the one to side with is point number two: that he’s a regular dude who says inappropriate things and goes his own way, just like 99.9% of the winemaking world. By and large, winemakers are just farmers. If they weren’t growing grapes they’d be growing something else, and you would never know their names (Who grows the corn for your Tostitos? Yeah, didn’t think you knew). What comes with the territory is living the rural life and being socially backward, telling dick jokes and not caring what other people think of you.
Some, mainly the ones who sell $200 bottles, think that hiding who they truly are – “I’m a noooooble farmer” – is what allows them to sell their wines for the prices they do. And it’s worked for them for a couple decades now. Call me crazy, but I love the fact that Fred Franzia, in a regular-farmer-dude way, isn’t going to let them get away with it for too much longer.
Having said all that, I never drink Two Buck Chuck. Personally, I don't like it all that much. But I love what it stands for.
