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Wine shortage. 

Two simple words that strike fear into the heart of Real Housewives from Atlanta to Beverly Hills. Is it time to start hoarding our wine for leaner, thirstier times?

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Purveyor of budget brand Two Buck Chuck says not to worry. His Charles Shaw wines will not change. 

Following a Morgan Stanley report on Monday that wine will become scarce, which caused tiny panics to ripple across the country, Fred Franzia, yes, the man who brought us boxed wine, says there’s no evidence of a grape shortage in California.

In fact, his vineyards, the most extensive in the U.S., have just harvested a "good crop."

 

European wine makers are seeing a decline in their crops, but this comes after years of over-production. This shortage wouldn’t have an effect on current supplies anyway. Wine lovers would still have up to five years to see availability of their favorite brands become scarce.

In the meantime, however, they could see their prices go up, and that’s what Franzia says this is really about anyway. 

He calls it "hocus pocus" and indicates that the "shortage" is manufactured by economists strictly to drive the price of grapes skyward, creating bigger bottom lines for non-budget brands.

So don’t worry. Two Buck Chuck is here to stay.