A Two Buck Chuck Surprise

No, I'm not referring to the 2005 Two Buck Chuck winning the Best Chardonnay in California with no price limit over 270 other chardonnays at the 2007 Sacramento State Fair. That's old news.

I'm talking about the 2002 Shiraz they made. It won a gold medal or two back then, so remember hunting a bottle down. I think that I was supposed to look for the a specific bottling, too. I remember having to go to more than one Trader Joes to find it, if I recall.

About 7 of us had dinner with wine at work, yesterday. The 2BC Shiraz had no varietal character at all, in fact I'd be hard pressed to guess what grape this was. But it was tasting rather well with pleasing fruit and a medium body. Smooth with just a touch of acidity. I'd give it an 87. This was surprising for many reasons

• It's Two Buck Chuck
• It was a 2002, and I didn't expect any 2BC to keep so well
• I haven't exactly protected it over the years. It sat in a wine rack on the bottom shelf of a in the wall book case. It was protected much of the time by other wine boxes in front of it, but the temperatures routinely reach 75 or 77 in the summer. And it's been there for 4+ years.
• It's Two Buck Chuck

A coworker, Neha, even liked the 2BC better than a 2005 Razor's Edge Shiraz (WS 90). I'll admit the Razor was pretty closed initially, but it a spicy pepperiness along with the subdued dark fruit. And the Razor's started to open up after 45 minutes developing a rich body, which I'd give an 89.

But perhaps the biggest surprise later that evening was my own elation at finding I had two more bottles of the 2002 Shiraz Two Buck Chuck.