The nose has a great pepper blend (a little black, more red and white pepper corns), ripe cherries and a little oak. Very zinnish and very nice. (Remember, calling a zinfandel that comes in a jug “zinnish” is quite a compliment.)

Lots of that cherry fruit is in the palate, along with a good dose of oak and plenty of acidity. That acidity (along with an alcohol content that doesn’t reach the stratosphere) makes this a good wine to have with dinner (as opposed to so many zins that only go with food in that they are alcoholic enough to light the barbeque).

Sadly, the finish isn’t very long, but isn’t bad either. Well, maybe just a little medicinal, but that went away by day two (I gassed the jug, re-screwed the cap, and let it sit a night.) Take that as a strong suggestion: While this isn’t a big jug-o-wine, it’s still a liter. Don’t drain the cute li’l’ thing in a single evening. The wine will get better and you’ll feel better.

Cheers,
TSW

* -WoW's Party Wine denotation is given to a bottle that you can bring to a party, and it'll make you look good, but isn’t so amazing that you’ll be devastated if you end up not getting any.

Do not adjust your computer screen. The Wine of the Week is indeed in a jug and no, this isn’t another bad joke. This is a marketing ploy from some good wine makers in Napa.

What you have here is a straight-forward zinfandel, offering exactly what you’d expect from the grape. You just wouldn’t expect it to come at this price or in this packaging.

And that’s the beauty here. Think about it: You make a good wine and want to sell it at a good price. Or, put another way, you have exactly what a whole lot of other wineries do, and getting lost in the noise is really easy. To make sure they didn’t, Three Thieves put its affordable, good-but-not-amazing zinfandel in this funky, 1-liter jug and topped it with a screw cap.