Two Buck Chuck and Your $50 Steak

You know more about a bottle of Two Buck Chuck than you know about your $50 Steak.

TWO BUCK CHUCK

"Two Buck Chuck" means the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon wine, which is sold at Trader Joe's for $1.99 ("Two Bucks") and which is produced by the Charles Shaw vineyard ("Chuck") .

The wine label tells the story of the wine:

• The vineyard is Charles Shaw, and the grapes are grown, fermented, aged and bottled in California;
• The wine in produced from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape; and
• The wine was produced from grapes grown in a specified year and aged for a specified amount of time.

In summary, when you purchase a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck", you not only know all the details of the wine but you can be certain that, if you purchase a second bottle, it will taste exactly like the first, because it too was grown at the same vineyard from the same grape and in the same year.

YOUR $50 STEAK

You might buy a $50 steak at Morton's, Flemings, Ruth's Cris or other steakhouse or restaurant, and you might purchase an expensive steak from your local buther or supermarket.

When you do:

• You won't know the name of the ranch, the terrain, the weather or the feed where the cattle was raised;
• You won't know the breed of the cattle; and
• You won't know the age of the cattle or steak.

In short, when you purchase a steak, you know none of the details about where your steak came from.

COMPARISON

You know much more about a bottle of Two Buck Chuck than your $50 steak.

• ORIGIN: Even a cheap bottle of wine gives the name, location, terrain and weather where the grapes are grown, but steak from cattle raised on many different ranches, locations, terrain, weather and feed are mixed and packaged together;
• BREED: Even the cheapest bottle of wine names the variety of grape that was used to make it, but steak from many different breeds are mixed and packaged together; and
• AGE: Wine labels disclose the year of production, which is very important for a consumer to find the same wine taste, but steak from different years are mixed and packaged together.

DUPLICATE THE TASTE

When you purchase even a cheap wine like Two Buck Chuck, you know all the details about the wine. As a result, if you like that particular wine, you can purchase an identical bottle (the same vineyard, grape, location and year), and you will experience the identical taste. Different bottles of the same wine will taste exactly the same.

However, when you purchase a steak at a steakhouse or butcher, you know none of the details about the steak. As a result, if you like that particular steak, you can never duplicate the taste of that steak, since you don't know any of the details about the steak (the ranch, breed, year etc.). Different steaks at the same steakhouse or butcher do not taste the same, because they come from a single box in which steaks from different ranches, breeds and years are mixed together.

CONCLUSION

Consumers should demand to know as much about their steak as they know about their wine. Consumers have a right to know as much about their steak as the rancher who raised the cattle, including the geography, terrain, weather, cattle breed, sex, feed, age, health and care of the cattle.

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