Wine takes potshot at other crop

UKIAH - Marijuana and Mendocino County are synonymous. An estimated $1.5 billion underground economy is generated every year by illicit pot production.

Sales of four-wheel-drive vehicles, post-harvest vacation trips to Hawaii, and miles and miles of irrigation supplies underscore pot's pervasive role.

Now in a wink at the county's best-known crop, two vintners have launched Zig Zag Zin.

The bottle's label is virtually identical to the covers of Zig Zag packages that contain thin white papers for hand-rolled cigarettes, including the marijuana kind.

"We see it as a trip back in time," said Tim Thornhill, co-owner of Mendocino Wine Co.

Mendocino Wine still makes and markets Parducci wines, the county's oldest and most traditional wine label. But in the past year, Mendocino Wine has become a leader in an industrywide push to woo younger wine drinkers with flashy, fun and sometimes silly labels.

For Mendocino Wine, there's Tusk 'n Red, whose label evokes the grandeur of Italian architecture but with an elephant and its tusks looming in the foreground. And there's Big Yellow cabernet, with a bright label featuring the back of a 1940s-era taxicab.

The cover story of the March issue of Wine Enthusiast magazine focuses on the zany wine label craze. The Zig Zag Zin label was too late to make the magazine's list, but the story does cite the Sebastianis' Screw Kappa Napa and Smoking Loon, along with Cleavage Creek and Fat Bastard Merlot.

But Zig Zag Zin takes things a step further.

"Growing the Good Stuff" declares a tag line on Zig Zag's back label.

In general, the Zig Zag front and back labels bring smiles to the faces of aging baby boomers, many of whom in the 1960s and '70s rolled marijuana joints even if they never inhaled.

Thornhill said 200 wine drinkers showed up last weekend at the winery north of Ukiah despite drenching rain outside for the official launch of the Zig Zag brand. The average age was around 50, and nary a complaint was voiced about the label, said Thornhill.

But among local law enforcement officers and drug counselors, the Zig Zag label is raising a few eyebrows.

"I know I'm way conservative by Mendocino standards, but I think the label is a poor choice," said sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.

Smallcomb acknowledged that marijuana is tightly woven into the county's social fabric. But he said he sees pot as a "gateway" drug and any encouragement of its use is wrong.

Thornhill said the label's link to illegal marijuana production initially bothered him, and he said he was reluctant at first to release the brand.

"But I came to view it as largely nostalgia for a unique period in time. I'd like to think people will plop the bottle down on a dinner table, smile and begin to recollect where they were and what they were doing," Thornhill said.

Partner Paul Dolan said the label may push the envelope, but he called it harmless.

"We're determined to make Mendocino wines better known in the marketplace, and if we have to take some risks we will," said Dolan.

Dolan said he believes the quality of the Zig Zag zinfandel will indeed bring in new customers.

"It's a very spicy wine made from grapes grown on a benchland behind the winery," said Dolan.

Wine writers have begun to sing Zig Zag's praises.

A new review on appellationamerica.com described the zinfandel as "well grooved to engage your whole palate even when it's packed with pasta or pork loin, and fruity enough to light up all your buds." The reviewer hastened to add "taste" buds.

Thom Elkjer of winecountry.com said he still has an unopened bottle of Zig Zag Zin on his desk. "Heck if it doesn't give me the munchies just lookin' at it," Elkjer told Web readers.