the reason that charles shaw wins those taste testing contests is pretty simple, and shady to say the least.
the way they make their wine is by purchasing overstock of grapes from other producers. the grapes are very spotty and inconsistent in quality, which is why you can buy a case of the wine and every bottle will be completely different.
when they submit charles shaw to tastings, do you think they pick a random bottle out of inventory? of course not, they pick the best of what they have so that they can compete.
The price per ton of Chardonnay is relatively inexpensive, especially if you're getting your grapes from outside of Napa. Also, by California law only 75% of the grapes have to come from the named varietal on the bottle, so they could easily be blending in some Chenin Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc for consistency. Lastly, there is a lot of post-production stuff you can do to Chardonnay, most famously involving oak, but there is other stuff as well. So it seems possible that they can source from a wide variety of vinyards and still have a relatively consistent product, given the wide variety of options available under California law.
If that's true, then it's a serious flaw in the methodology of the people who do the testing. They shouldn't allow the brewer to submit the samples. They should pick a few bottles of the same vintage from various retailers and mix them together.
the way they make their wine is by purchasing overstock of grapes from other producers. the grapes are very spotty and inconsistent in quality, which is why you can buy a case of the wine and every bottle will be completely different.
when they submit charles shaw to tastings, do you think they pick a random bottle out of inventory? of course not, they pick the best of what they have so that they can compete.