Two Buck Chuck

I'm coming up with a lot of silly stories from out of the newspaper these days. And here's another one. Actually, it makes for a pretty fascinating "Retail Saga." What can I say? In the U.S., we like our Urban Myths and Retail Sagas.

2 week-ends ago, a $1.99 bottle of Chardonnay which is known on the street as "Two Buck Chuck" won Double Gold Prizes at a Blind Taste Test at the Cal-Expo in California. "Charles Shaw Chardonnay 2005" beat out something like 340 other Chardonnays scoring 98 points for "Best of California" and "Best of Class." If you've ever drunk California wine, you know that this is not necessarily a big deal. Myself, I try to stick with French not because I can taste the difference but because it doesn't give me a headache the next morning.

Two Buck Chuck is sold by Trader Joe's which is one of the world's coolest Gourmet-at-cheap-prices store, so it was marketed for best exposure when it first came out. It is created by Bronco Wine Co. which is based in Ceres, CA. Bronco is operated by Fred Franzia, a nephew of Ernest Gallo, so he knows how to jug a case of wine, it's in his, er, I was gonna say blood but in this case that makes him sound like Jesus and I don't want to go over board here. You can read about the whole story here: http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070628/NEWS/706280337&SearchID=73285627763793.
In the 1990's the Techies all planted vineyards because it was the California thing to do. When the Dot.com businesses tanked there was a glut of fine wines sitting in the warehouses, and the Techies all went back to wherever they were from. There were no more rich 20-somethings who could pay for it. Franzia bought out all the left-overs, bottled them up under an old defunct company name, and sold it all through Trader Joe's. The first bottle was sold in February, 2002 and included vintages from 2001 and 2002. So this is a story about how one man's failure is another man's fortune. The Dot.com bust, of course, coincides with that nasty Saturn-Pluto opposition in Gemini and Sagittarius. That's when Franzia and Trader Joe's became uber successful selling cheap versions of the Gourmet products that appeal to this crowd. Now they are established as better than the rest when Pluto and Saturn are trining each other. It seems there might be a good astro-finance lesson in here somewhere.

All I remember from financial investing class was the teacher saying over and over "The Trend is your friend." Ha! Look at the chart for when Charles Shaw hit the market in February, 2002! Most of the planets plowing through Aquarius that month. "Trends" and "Friends" are Aquarius keywords. Venus, Uranus, Neptune; Sun and Mercury for part of the month. Ceres (rules agriculture and is the name of the town where Bronco is based) is also in Aquarius. On Feb. 11, the Moon was also in Aquarius. (I have no idea of the real date.) These planets are mostly all trining the Gemini North Node (Marketing). Saturn was also in Gemini and out of orb with Pluto in Sagittarius. On the Feb. 11 date which was what I arbitrarily set, there are no squares and only one opposition between Jupiter and Chiron!

On the week-end of the Taste Testing competition, which I'm assuming is June 30-July 1, there was a Capricorn Full Moon. The Sun was conjunct Mercury in Cancer conjunct the Feb., 2002 Jupiter. Venus and Saturn were in conjunction in Leo opposite the Uranus-Ceres-Venus conjunction (possibly Sun and Moon) of the 2002 date. Mars was conjunct Ceres in Taurus. Mars had just had its Return in Aries. Supposedly Two Buck Chuck can be served the day that it is bottled, a major reason why it disgusts so many connoisseurs, but maybe that Mars Return was a good day for mixing the winning batch (Charles Shaw is often a mixture of 3-5 different wines). In Aries, I imagine one could stir up a nice batch of Fire Water.