The Los Angeles Times has a great
interview with Trader Joe himself, including this bit of advice about two-buck Chuck.
I tell people, on every case there's not only a date, there's an hour code. Write that down and if you like that bottle, go back and try to find the same date and hour. [The wine] will vary tremendously because of the volume -- 6 million cases or whatever it is a year. It is discontinuous; you cannot count that next month your Charles T. Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon will taste same as the last one.