What Makes Charles Shaw Merlot The Best Of The Trader Joe's Lineup

There are a lot of Trader Joe's products that pique people's interest and have their moment in the spotlight. The Caesar Dip is turning heads these days and the Sparkling Rosé Tea Beverage is on the tip of everyone's tongue. But there's one tried-and-true product that has been consistently delivering for years — good ol' two-buck chuck, aka Charles Shaw wine.

It comes in a variety of whites, rosés, and reds, it's beyond affordable, and lots of people, Tasting Table's reviewer included, will tell you it's pretty pleasant to drink. We ranked eight Charles Shaw wines, and the merlot came out on top. Ever since Alexander Payne's "Sideways" was released in 2004, merlot has often been the butt of jokes, but public perception has deservedly begun to shift in the last 20 years; 30% of respondents to a Tasting Table poll agreed that merlot is the best red wine.

Among the Charles Shaw offerings, the merlot stood out as the most impressive. "This particular merlot is surprisingly light and supple, making it super easy to drink even without food," the reviewer wrote. "Its notes of cherry and strawberry make for a red wine that would taste particularly good chilled, although it can also be served at room temperature." They called it "an incredibly accessible red wine." That may be part of the reason merlot's name has been so maligned in the past, but in the year 2025, who doesn't want and deserve a cheap, sippable wine?

Tasting Table's wine connoisseur isn't the only person who's singing the praises of Charles Shaw merlot. Food review blog Distilled Opinion called it "solid and drinkable" and decided to "add the merlot to the list of surprisingly good two-buck-chuck varietals."

The bloggers at Living Trader Joe's said of the Charles Shaw product, "This merlot's complexity is subtle yet consistent, the berry and cherry flavors are a perfect marriage, and I found it hard to resist once it was open." They said it paired nicely with rice and sautéed vegetables but would complement a meat dish just as well. A review on the Ain't Found A Good Title Blog called it "pretty good," and "really good if you rate it on the value scale since it's [so cheap]." And that's the thing.

Charles Shaw wine is cheap. There's no getting around that. And opinions on it vary widely across the vast territory that is the internet. However, we tend to agree with a Reddit user who pointed out three qualities of two-buck chuck we can get behind: "It is consistently not horrible, can be decent at times, and is always cheap."