A lot of wine-y people have expressed skepticism over the gold medals Two-Buck Chuck recently scored at California's State Fair Wine Competition. Come on, they opined, the stuff costs $1.99 a bottle! How could it be deserving of a gold medal? Rather than sit around concocting conspiracy theories ("the contest was rigged, I tell you!"), I decided to do something crazy: open a bottle and taste it. I had to hit two Trader Joe's locations to find one, but I eventually succeeded. Then I set up a blind tasting for my Wines & Vines office-mates that included the medal-winning Charles Shaw Chardonnay, along with three other 2005 Chards: Hacienda, California, $6.99; McWilliams Hanwood Estate, Australia, $9; and MacRostie, Carneros, $22. The mission of our 10-person tasting panel was to sample all four wines, then rank them according to preference. So what happened? The McWilliams Chardonnay from Australia was our top-rated wine (well-rounded, tropical fruit flavors and not over-oaked), chosen as the best entry by 50% of our staff. In my personal ranking, the MacRostie was #2, followed by Two-Buck Chuck and Hacienda. Two people on the panel chose Two-Buck Chuck as their top wine. I found the Charles Shaw Chard to be a pretty nice wine: soft, not-at-all oaky (a bonus in my book) and generally inoffensive. I wouldn't say it's a great wine (not enough complexity there), but it's simple, balanced and easy to drink. What more could you ask from a $1.99 wine?
