(Forbes) - I may be dating myself, but I remember when Two-Buck Chuck first appeared in Trader Joe's. And honestly, it wasn't too bad. I believed the stories — that they were buying bulk wine that was sometimes very good, and sometimes not so good. My experience with the wine reflected that at the time— although these days, it's just not good. 

Supermarket wine has a pretty bad rap here — deservedly so. Much of it is too sweet and unbalanced, with little thought given to flavor and a focus on price. But that may be starting to change. At the 2019 International Salute to Excellence Wine Awards, a competition sponsored by the Private Label Manufacturers Association, U.S. wines took home seven top awards — the best performance ever recorded for wines sold exclusively by U.S. supermarkets.