Fred Franzia was known to say it often: No bottle of wine should cost more than $10. And for nearly two decades, he offered it for much, much less.
“Who says we’re lower priced? We’re the best price,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009. “The others, I think, are overpriced.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Franzia died at his home in Denair, Calif., leaving behind one of the largest wine operations in the United States — and a legacy of pioneering one of the most ubiquitous cheap wines. He was 79, Mr. Franzia’s Bronco Wine Co. wrote in an announcement without specifying the cause of his death.
Some might be under the impression that a man named Charles Shaw is behind the $2 wine (now priced at upward of $4 per bottle) that appeared on Trader Joe’s shelves in 2002, and in some ways, he is. Shaw, a lover of French wine, started a Napa winery in the 1970s and won awards for his vintages until financial trouble forced him to sell the brand and its trademark in 1995, the New Yorker reported.
The buyer was Mr. Franzia, a scion of a large wine family, who had already founded Bronco Wine Co. with his brother and cousin in 1973, with the goal of producing quality wines to be sold at affordable prices. Two Buck Chuck came about in 2002, when a recession had caused a surplus in wine and Mr. Franzia decided to offload it for cheap under the Charles Shaw brand, the New Yorker reported.
The concept was considered “revolutionary.” Unlike the budget wines available at that time, Charles Shaw was delivered in a glass bottle with a cork and, despite not being particularly good, it tasted “truly dry,” The Washington Post’s Ben Giliberti wrote at the time. And it was a smashing success, selling 2 million cases in its first year and 5 million the following year, Wine Spectator reported.
In 2009, after 400 million bottles had been sold, Mr. Franzia remarked: “Take that and shove it, Napa,” according to the New Yorker.
The comment encapsulated Mr. Franzia’s ethos of pushing back against the preciousness of Northern California wine culture. He frequently asserted that wine should not only be affordable but also bargain cheap. Asked how Bronco could make wine that was at one point less expensive than a bottle of water, his company noted in its death announcement, Mr. Franzia replied: “They’re overcharging for the water — don’t you get it?”
With dozens of brands, Bronco Wine Co. is now the 13th-largest winemaker in the United States, having sold 3.4 million cases in 2021, Wine Spectator reported.
Fred Franzia was born on May 24, 1943, and grew up in California’s Central Valley, working at his family’s Franzia Brothers Winery, the Turlock Journal reported. As the vineyard expanded, it was eventually purchased by Coca-Cola, and the Franzia name is now emblazoned on — and synonymous with — boxes of cheap wine. Coca-Cola eventually sold the Franzia brand. Mr. Franzia’s uncle started another major California winemaker: E. & J. Gallo Winery.
Mr. Franzia attended Santa Clara University and eventually started Bronco with his brothers, the Journal reported. One of his strategies was to buy bankrupt labels. Mr. Franzia told CNN Money in 2007: “We buy wineries from guys from Stanford who go bankrupt.” (Shaw studied at Stanford.) Bronco also bought trademarks of wines that could advertise as being produced in Napa Valley while being made in the Central Valley — thanks to a state loophole that was later changed over Mr. Franzia’s resistance, the New Yorker reported.
And Mr. Franzia’s business practices sometimes went to extremes. In 1994, he was forced to step down as the head of his company for five years and personally pay a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to fraud charges, the New Yorker reported. Mr. Franzia had misrepresented the quality of grapes in about a million gallons of wine, having employees scatter zinfandel leaves over cheaper grapes, which he allegedly called “blessing of the loads,” according to the New Yorker.
Despite the controversies, he developed a reputation as a “maverick” in the industry.
“His entrepreneurial spirit, tireless dedication, and his commitment to both his family and to the Bronco family will forever be remembered,” his company wrote Tuesday. “His legacy will endure for generations to come.”