The Story

You may have heard the tale of the Three Thieves, three regular guys who threw away centuries of tradition and winemaking knowledge, and in the process,changed the wine industry forever.

Their story begins in 2001, when the trio—a.k.a Charles Bieler, Joel Gott, and Roger Scommegna—hit upon a brilliant thought. Realizing that there was an enormous excess of great wine being produced by premium wineries, and a flourishing market for quality wine at the $10 price point, they began buying wine from these wineries and creating their own blends, using their own winemaking skills to improve upon the original composition. The three partners got a reputation for ‘robbing’ vineyards blind of high-end varietals, at prices described as a ‘steal,’ and the name “Three Thieves” stuck.

Like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, the Three Thieves ‘stole’ from the rich, and made great wine accessible to everyone—from NASCAR fans looking for something to pair with their drive-thru dinners, to soccer moms looking for a respite from their busy days.

They believed that there was more to good wine than fancy bottles, and their first release, a Zinfandel bottled in a one-liter glass jug with a screw top, proved their point when it was a huge hit with wine lovers everywhere. Soon afterwards, Three Thieves released jugs of Cabernet and Chardonnay to much hoopla and fanfare and their reputation as mavericks was sealed.

Their outside-the-box thinking soon became inside-the-box thinking when they again pushed the boundaries with Tetra Pak Bandits. Inside of these lightweight, eco-friendly, resealable boxes, is the kind of tremendous quality wine people have come to expect from Three Thieves.

More innovations—and lots of great wine— followed, including The Show, True Earth wines, and even a partnership with an honest-to-goodness real-life legend, Paul Newman, and the Newman’s Own Foundation.

Rest assured that this story is not yet over, and that the Three Thieves will carry on blazing a trail in the wild, wild wine world.

TO BE CONTINUED...