Charles Shaw, aka Two-buck Chuck, is king of the cut-rates, but a number of other labels are squeezing under the $2 price tag in California, the result of an oversupply of grapes and new technology that makes making good wine easier.

The idea, makers of the supervalues hope, is to offer champagne tastes on a beer budget.

"One of the things we've had problems with is too many cork-sniffers telling consumers that they've got to drink pinot noir out of a special glass and cabernet out of a Bordeaux glass," says Jeff O'Neill, CEO of Golden State Vintners, which makes the $1.99 Pacific Peak.

"They can taste these wines, drink them out of whatever glass they feel like drinking them out of and enjoy it with their meal."

The wines, also known as extreme value wines and available out-of-state for slightly more, are being quaffed with enthusiasm, says wine analyst Jon Fredrickson. Demand for the cheap wines — especially Charles Shaw — helped boost California table wine shipments for the first four months of the year to 48.2 million cases, a 3.5 percent increase, he said.

"No question, people are buying and drinking more wine because they like bargains," Fredrickson said.

Charles Shaw, $1.99, is produced by Ceres, Calif.-based Bronco Wine Co. Bronco has a second supervalue, Sea Ridge, sold for between $1.99 and $2.99 in grocery stores. Pacific Peak is sold at Beverages & More.

Consumers may be enjoying the new value vinos, but supervalues are giving mainstream brands quite a headache, Fredrickson said. Particularly hard hit are the $5 to $10 wines already fighting off the challenge of hot Australian brands.

Meanwhile, sales of French wine were slumping by some measures, although it was hard to say how much of that is due to the calls for boycott that sprang up after France opposed the war in Iraq.

According to data from ACNielsen, which tracks sales at large retailers, sales totals for French wine were down 10 percent for the year ending June 7. The data spiked around the time of the war, dropping 26 percent for the four weeks ending April 12 and 19 percent for the four weeks ending May 10.

Bucking the trend were the 2000 Bordeaux, heralded as one of the best vintages ever, which were selling at a brisk rate. Experts also point out that retail store data don't give the full picture on French wine sales since some states don't allow sales of wine in grocery stores and French wine enthusiasts are likely to buy from wine shops.

Erica Valentine, who recently opened a discount wine shop, Vineyard Outlet in Napa, sees the drama of the wine market play out in her store, which sells wines from all over and has a big display of French wines.

"I'd say two out of 10 people come in and they're in a snit about France and they go right away from France," she said. The other eight couldn't care less.

"We have some really great-priced Bordeaux of the 2000 vintage and they're flying out of here," she said.

Valentine doesn't carry the supervalues; she finds her customers tend to be mostly interested in the $10 to $15 price range. But she applauds the concept as using up the glut and introducing wine to a new group of consumers.

Opinions vary on whether the supervalue wines are here to stay or will last only as long as the surplus grapes — or until the novelty wears off.

O'Neill believes prices will rise some, but noted that winemaking technology has improved to the point where winemakers will still be able to produce a decent wine at low prices.