The Bronco Wine Company in Ceres, California.

Grapevines growing on the grounds of the Bronco Wine Company in Ceres, California.

The Bronco Wine Company is a vintner that produces wines under several brands and is based in Ceres, California. They are the fourth largest producer of wine in the United States.

CEO Fred Franzia, nephew of wine legend Ernest Gallo, started Bronco Wine in 1973, after the Franzia winery business was purchased by Coca-Cola and then later by the Wine Group, a privately held bulk wine producer based in San Francisco (the source of the "bag-in-box" wines that bear the Franzia name, but which have no connection to either the Franzia family or to Bronco).

Bronco owns over 35,000 acres (140 km²) of vineyards most of which is located in California's Central Valley. With storage and production facilities in Ceres, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Escalon and Madera this bulk wine producer has the capacity to produce 61 million US gallons (230 million litres) of wine annually. Total annual sales are approximately 20 million cases.

Bronco Wine is best known for its Charles Shaw brand, commonly nicknamed "Two Buck Chuck", varietals that retail for $1.99 a bottle at Trader Joe's stores in California and some other states. Slightly higher prices prevail elsewhere, due mainly to transportation expense. In the East, it is, for example, called "Three Buck Chuck" or "Four Buck Chuck."

Franzia's marketing methods contrast with those of his higher priced competitors, although he is also credited with introducing new consumers to the wine market and ultimately to the premium brands. His business model is based on the surplus of grapes that followed the collapse of the dot com market.

Bronco is a contraction of the words "brother" and "cousin", linked by "n", for "and". A profile in SF Weekly noted:

Franzia, his brother, and a cousin co-own Bronco and control at least 35,000 acres (140 km²) of vineyards under cultivation in the Central Valley, more than any other entity, including the E&J Gallo Wine Co., the industry behemoth co-founded by Franzia's famous uncle, Ernest, and his brother, the late Julio Gallo. Bronco also controls its own distribution company, Classic Wines of California, which gives Franzia and his relatives a leg up on the competition when it comes to getting their products onto store shelves. Theirs is an empire that stretches from near Sacramento to the edge of the Tehachapi Mountains an hour north of Los Angeles, where Bronco is busy planting at least one new "section" -- which is to say, 640 acres (2.6 km²), or a square mile -- each year.[1]

As of March 2007 the company has no website, though it owns the domain name broncowineco.com and others.

[edit] Legal problems

in 1993 Franzia and Bronco Wine Company were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud by misrepresenting cheaper grapes as premium Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. Bronco pleaded no contest and paid a $2.5 million fine. Franzia also pled guilty for his involvement, paid a $500,000 fine, stepped down as Bronco's president and member of the company's board of directors and agreed to refrain from having any involvement with grape purchasing for five years in lieu of prison time.

Franzia has also been at odds with California's premium winemakers for several years over his inclusion of Napa and other related appellation terms on labels of his wines. Franzia sued the state of California over implementation of a 2000 law that tightened Federal labeling laws. His lawsuit was unsuccessful initially and up through the appeals process as well; he eventually sought certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, but the Court declined to take the case.^[1]

[edit] Labor problems

On May 16, 2008, a pregnant, 17 year-old immigrant worker named Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez collapsed and later died while pruning vines at a vineyard east of Stockton, CA owned by West Coast Grape Farming, a division of Bronco Wines. According to witnesses, foremen did nothing to aid Vasquez Jimenez until at least five minutes after she collapsed. Vasquez Jimenez and her fellow laborers were allowed only one water break per day, with each work day lasting at least ten hours. Additionally, the only water source provided for Vasquez Jimenez and her fellow workers was a 10-minute walk away in temperatures that topped 95 degrees. Employers who are found to have willfully violated heat laws can be fined a maximum of $25,000. The United Farm Workers Union is protesting Vasquez Jimenez's treatment as an "egregious" violation of Cal-OSHA safety regulations.^[2]

[edit] Prizes

The affordable Charles Shaw Chardonnay wine beat out 350 other California chardonnays to win the double gold at the 2007 California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition. Charles Shaw Chardonnay is mass-produced in California and sold only through the quirky Trader Joe's grocery stores. "We choose to sell good quality wines at $2 a bottle because we think it's a fair price," Fred Franzia told ABC News. "We think the other people are charging too much."^[3]

[edit] Brands

The Bronco Wine Company maintains over 50 brands of wine, including:^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Company information from Hoover's Online.
• Fred Franzia Warms at 30th Anniversary of Bronco Wine Company by Paul Franson from Wine Business Monthly in June 2004.
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/18/WIGG0ISRON1.DTL Article from San Francisco Chronicle regarding labeling lawsuit
• http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060501/franzia.html Article from Inc. magazine about Fred Franzia
• Fred Franzia Puts the Spotlight on Two Buck Chuck from fredfranzia.com
• How a $2 bottle changed wine industry article from msnbc.com