Raising a Glass To Fred Franzia — A True Iconoclast
November 28, 2022 Right off the bat, Fred Franzia told me he didn’t particularly like farming. I’ve met thousands of growers — interviewing hundreds at length — and that’s the first and only time I’ve heard that seemingly nonsensical statement.
But Franzia, who passed away at home surrounded by family in September at the age of 79, said it was perfectly logical. He was in the wine business, and it starts with grapes, so he grew them, a simple but wholly successful formula.
“I’m in the vineyard business because I can grow grapes more cheaply than I can buy them,” he said. “The guy who owns the dirt already, he’s got the advantage.”
Vertical integration was the key to Franzia’s goal in co-founding Bronco Wine Company in 1973 in Ceres, CA. That and providing drinkable wines at low prices — he was the man behind iconic brands like Charles Shaw wine, affectionately known as “Two-Buck Chuck” — made him a very rich man.
It also made him an enemy of the premium wine producers, especially those on the North Coast of California, not that he didn’t earn such enmity. After all, in 1993, he pled guilty to misrepresenting grapes in some of Bronco Wine Company’s offerings. He also sold wines with the name “Napa” on the label, though the grapes weren’t grown there, and he ended up being ordered to destroy 500,000 bottles.
Fred Franzia
But the wine grape grower who didn’t like farming shared a few lessons — on one of the rare occasions he spoke at a meeting of Central Valley wine growers a dozen years ago — that still have value:
• Research — Franzia urged his fellow growers to support such groups as the American Vineyard Foundation (AVF) — at the time he had donated more than any grower to the AVF — and the programs at Fresno State University and the University of California (UC) Davis. Showing Franzia’s allegiance, Bronco committed $500,000 for a viticulture chair at UC-Davis, specifically to serve valley growers, and double that — $1 million — to Fresno State. “There’s no doubt that California is the backbone of the American wine business and will continue to be the No. 1 quality supplier of varietal wines,” Franzia said. “But an investment now in research and education can help us regain market share.”
• Water — Franzia said water use will be tightly regulated, and growers need to be proactive. That means investing in research for new rootstocks that need less water, new varieties that thrive in the valley heat, and monitoring irrigation systems for maximum efficiency. In particular, he said growers need an easy-to-use, vine-based water monitoring system. “Soil monitoring is great,” he said, “but it’s like relying on the thermostat in your office rather than checking your body temperature to determine if you’re ill.”
• Efficiency — Most of the harvesting should be done by the wineries, not by growers who only use the equipment for a short time each year. As many acres as he farmed, he didn’t even own the trucks that hauled his grapes to the wineries. “Your capital expenditures are going to kill you,” he said.
• Immigration — This was clearly a pet peeve for Franzia, whose grandfather Giuseppe arrived from Italy in 1893 — his Ellis Island certificate hangs on the wall of modest Bronco offices. “Is there any grape farmer in this room that will say he can operate his vineyard today without Latino labor? Without Latinos, there would not be a California grape and wine industry,” he told the assembled growers, urging them to support the California Farm Labor Contractor Association.
“The question isn’t whether illegal immigration is a problem, but how to solve it,” Franzia concluded, saying he was sick of the “excessive bashing and stereotyping” of Latino immigrants. “On the whole, Latino immigrants are an asset, not a liability.”
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