What is The Opposite of Two Buck Chuck?

We all know there are revolutions happening at the bottom end of the pricing spectrum for wine. Charles Shaw has brought wine into the homes of Trader Joe's shoppers all over the country (but how many of them are there really) and frightened the hell out of the critical wine establishment with its success.

It turns out there are things happening on the other end of the spectrum, too. Perhaps not as revolutionary, but definitely some changes, changes you might say that are the opposite of Two Buck Chuck. No, no, no, the prices for Screaming Eagle have not dropped into our buying range yet. And frankly neither will this one, but it seems that some folks are out to re-tool the top end of Napa Red wines.

The brothers who head the winemaking team at ZD decided several years ago to create an ultra-premium wine called Abacus that will likely hit the street at a cool $325 a bottle. Apart from the interesting marketing ideas behind this wine (will people really think it's that special?) it happens to be made using a technique known as solera which is typically used for port, blended scotch, or other liquors. This method involves using a portion of wine from previous vintages (sometimes going back 12 years) along with wine from a current vintage to create a blend that has both aged and new wine.

Read the full story here.

Posted by: Alder on July 18, 2004 11:14 PM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Ramblings and Rants , Wine News

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Comments (4)

Huge wrote:

07.22.04 at 2:22 PM

Great wine blog. I've just started mine this week, and I'm going to start some links and include yours if that's okay...

Alder Yarrow wrote:

07.22.04 at 2:31 PM

Feel free to put a link on your site. I will reciprocate. But be careful, with a name like that people might accidentally think your legitimate comments on their blog were spam and delete them without thinking. (I nearly did).

lafite55 wrote:

11.10.05 at 6:24 PM

The bottom line is 2buck chuck is a kia (Car brand) and screaming eagle is a hand made Aston Martin. No comparison. Considering the quality and the source of the grape. People dont understand quality / value, will be the people we see driving a 10 yr old corolla everyday. I grow grapes in a 3 acre land in East LA, and I m thinking of selling the grape to the factory who make 2 buck chuck ( they not qualified to be call wine maker.) It doesn't matter whats the grape quality as long as it grape juice. I use a lot of pesticide and the dogs around use my vineyard as a public toilet. I know the grape is bad quality but hey, who cares, as long as people like 2 buck chuck will buy it.

Alder wrote:

11.12.05 at 5:00 PM

Actually, "Lafite55," if you want the analogy to be a little more correct, Screaming Eagle is an Aston Martin that sells for 10 times what most people pay for one.