Oh, Thank Heavens, 7-Eleven's Making Its Own Wine. Just, Ya Know, Don't Call it "Cheap."

Dallas-based 7-Eleven's had a few proprietary wines on shelves for some time, among them Sonoma Crest and Thousand Oaks, but today comes word that the convenience store's actually in the private-label business thanks to a partnership with its Japanese sibling, Seven-Eleven Japan. And, whoa, Yosemite Road is quite the bargain: Says the press release, both the Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon will sell for $3.99 a bottle. Who needs a Trader Joe's, anyway?

"We prefer to think of it as value," says 7-Eleven spokesperson Carole Davidson, when Unfair Park said of the Napa Valley-produced product, "Wow, that sure is cheap." She also laughed. "But, yes, it is inexpensive. ... We do have a couple of proprietary labels, but they're a little higher-priced than this offering."

Like, what, $4.99?

"$9.99," Davidson says. "What's different this time is we've used our global scale, to the extent we're lauunching this in Japan today -- effectively, last night. We expect this to be in 15,000 outlets under the Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. of Tokyo. We'll have it in 2,000 stores in the U.S.; the rest will be in Japan. They have department stores and supermarket chains where we expect the wine to be sold." She adds that the move into a private-label wine jibes with "aggressive" efforts over the last year to brand most everything edible in the joint with the 7-Eleven name.

The wine won't be available in the U.S. till next week. But expect a taste test on City of Ate sooner than that. Got that, FTC?