The success of 2 Buck Chuck is satisfying to anyone who can’t stand wine snobbishness. Probably Trader Joe’s cheapest brand of wine, Chuck, formally known as Charles Shaw, has been gaining popularity for a few years now, to the chagrin of more expensive Napa vinyards, and for good reason- in addition to being dirt cheap, it’s also an award winner. Both its Shiraz and its Chardonnay have topped several wine championships, in 2004 and last year respectively. It goes without saying that these are blind taste tests- wine judges are only human, and even if they weren’t openly too snooty to appreciate that which isn’t over-priced, the taste centers in their brains might do their biasing for them.

Stories like this give no small amount of pleasure. Who doesn’t like to see an industry like wine making, with all the unnecessary pomp, taken down a peg?