Three Thieves

[dananne]

Had seen some good reviews of this stuff, so we decided to give it a try. 1 L retro screwtop jug. Price equates to about $4 a 750 ml bottle. Right now we're working our way through the 03 Zin. Tasty stuff, good fruit, clean finish. Not too rustic, which came as a surprise. Nothing pretentious about it, though, just a nice quaffer that you don't need to think about for midweek drinking or for entertaining larger groups. We'll try the Napa or regular Cab bottlings next, if we can find it. Seems to be selling out everywhere I look. The folks at both Whole Foods and World Market said it flies off the shelves as fast as they can stock it. Packaging and price.

Anyone else give this a shot and, if so, any thoughts?

Edit: A-ha. Saw some posts from back in April about it. Seems others liked it, too. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]


[This message has been edited by dananne (edited 12-13-2004).]

[Kcwhippet]

We got some of the Zin and Cab in the shop. Started with a case each, and they lasted about a day and a half. Got in a few cases of each and they lasted about a week. The owner decided he didn't want to carry it anymore. Strange. I liked both. Good wine for the price, and they went well with food, which is a major plus in our home.

[winoweenie]

Posted on the cab last year. Me Likee! Will see if the new version is back in stock.WW

[hotwine]

KC, would bet the owner had a low margin on that juice and thought he could make more on another product, even if it had lower volume. Some folks don't appreciate Sam Walton's business model.

[wondersofwine]

And apparently the customers like it if it sells quickly. You would think the owner would want to stock it for the customers' satisfaction.

[Thomas]

WOW,

Having been there, I can tell you that there are many behind the scene reasons for a retailer to drop a product. Sometimes, the product's price to the retailer, sometimes the compettition, sometimes the distributor is difficult, sometimes the sales rep screws up, and on and on...

[Kcwhippet]

hotsy, Exactly correct. He'd much rather go with the higher margin items. He direct imports several items that are priced on the shelves very competitively with similar wines, but at very high margin. For instance, we have a Shiraz from Argentina, that's a really tasty wine, that's priced at $11.99. He got it at $2.50.

WoW, Foodie essentially has it, re the price to the retailer. For whatever reason, we can't get it from the distributor at a price that will let us sell at the price that will both return a high enough margin and keep our claim to the lowest prices in the area. I suspect (I haven't asked) that we can't get it in the high volumes we get many other wines to give us the enormous discounts from the distributor. For instance, we sell Veuve Cliquot Brut (yellow label) at $29.99, which is lower than most stores can buy from the distributor, because we take it in 150 case lots. cg wants to open a wine shop in a few years, but if she could work in my shop for a few weeks and see what it takes to be really competitive in the market, she would run, not walk, fast in the other direction. Foodie probably has a few hair raising tales to tell in that area, also.

[Thomas]

Hair raising--I would if I could, if you get my drift...

Seriously KC, my primary reason for getting out of is-wine had a lot to do with what I thought would be endless hard work for endless low pay--even for one of the owners.

Of course, the other reason was one of the owners [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/eek.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 12-14-2004).]

[winoweenie]

That's the exact same reason your Ex tolt me . [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]WW

[Thomas]

Which ex?