Wine of Chucky

Realistically, what can you buy for $2? You can get a pack of gum, or maybe one of those pine tree air fresheners for your car. Maybe two Mickey D's dollar menu burgers (gag), or, well... I don't know if there is much out there that costs two bucks and is actually worth it. Trader Joe's is known throughout the country as the place to find "trendy" food and wine. I have discovered that they sell dirt cheap stuff too. Charles Shaw Wines, affectionately known as "Two Buck Chuck," these $1.99 bottles of wine get the job done. You have your choice of a few reds and two whites that taste like spiked grape juice rather than wine.

This stuff is just barely passable. It is simply not good wine, but for two bucks, anyone can afford wine, whether it's with dinner or to get hammered every night. Unfortunately, it has no real character to it. You take in the nose and you can discern what grape it is, and that's about it. One won't detect black fruit with a hint of earth on the Cab. Nor will one dive into a glass of Chuck's Chardonnay and be bombarded with buttery oaked goodness on the palate. All of his wines smell and taste like grape.

So don't whip it out when you're trying to impress your fellow wino friends. This juice is more worthy of entertaining a lady friend with the IQ of a rutabaga. But it gets the job done, and for that I am forced to give Chuck S. credit.