Fred Franzia Has No Soul

Keeping in mind the current economic climate, it is mighty difficult and probably unwise to fault wine drinkers for using price as the determining factor when they choose a bottle of wine.  Even when times are more flush, price should be and is always one of the considerations before picking one wine over another, but these days the decision seems to be easy - wallets are tight and bottles under $10 are flying off of the shelves across the country.  Even before the onset of the Great Recession, one wine ascended to the top of the best-seller list because of its name, simple straight-forward flavors and availability - Two Buck Chuck.  Now, before I go any further, let me make one point clear - I have no problem with the wine or the people that drink the wine.  And, I often sell, recommend and drink inexpensive wines.  However, the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention this morning when I read a piece on abcnews.com where Fred Franzia stated that, "there's no wine that's worth fifty dollars a bottle."

For a large number of wine drinkers, spending $50 on a bottle of wine is not feasible.  Some cannot afford it, some don't think it's worth it and most just don't understand what differentiates a $10 bottle from a $50 bottle.  And I am fine with that - it's my job and passion to educate wine drinkers, both novice and experienced, the differences in grapes and wines at all price points.  What troubles me about Franzia's comment is his position as the Sultan of Schlock almost requires him making such an absurd comment.

A bottle of wine is representative of where it comes from - always, without exception.  Now, that could mean the region, climate, soil, winemaking heritage, musty cellar and so on and so forth.  Because of it's nature, wine cannot escape it's roots.  And sometimes, those roots cost money, lots of money.  Franzia takes another viewpoint, however.  He claims that his winery does "the same thing and it doesn't cost money."  Are you really doing the same thing Fred?  He goes on to explain that some of the rows of his vines stretch for miles throughout the Central Valley and because of the location of these vines, the land is cheap.  And because of mechanical harvesting, he is able to keep down the labor costs.  And since the grapes are transformed into wine in huge factories, production costs are kept at a minimum as well.  Interesting.  Replace the grapes with agro-corporate beef and you'll have McDonald's.

On his way to making hundreds of millions of dollars, Franzia has done absolutely nothing wrong.  However, his ignorance has rubbed me the wrong way on this Friday morning.  I believe that it is worth paying the price for a wine that is made by farmers.  That's what most winemakers are - farmers.  And some of the wine that winemakers produce requires a little aging to express itself in ways that Franzia obviously doesn't comprehend as he stated that "I love French people that go, 'Well, in 20 years this wine's going to be perfect.'  Well, don't waste the money.  I don't want to wait 20 years to drink a wine.  Nothing's worth it."  I'd like to know if Franzia joined the French Wine Flushing Parties during the enlightened anti-French phase this country went through after during the invasion of Iraq. 

I also think that Franzia is incorrect in assuming that all wine drinkers share his shrewd, hollow point of view that wines are incapable of expressing uniqueness and a sense of place.  Frankly, I find his approach insulting as his philosophy suggests wine drinkers are mere simpletons.

I doubt that the sales of inexpensive wines like Two Buck Chuck will slow down, even after we pull ourselves out of the Great Recession.  And the way I see it, that's alright, because at least people are drinking wine.  And there are scores of wine under $10 that are made by actual people in small vineyards that do not have the flavor profile of factory produced grape juice.  A battle will linger on as well - the battle for the soul of wine.  As our world becomes more homogenized and plastic, wine remains one of the last conduits to a bygone era - one that heralded craftmanship, personality and pride in creating products with sweat and soul.