Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

What's Brewing

A giant crush of grapes

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published October 21, 2005

Buying bottles of wine at Total Wine & More is like buying pairs of shoes at DSW. You can't buy just one.

Need a nice cab to take to a party? A chardonnay to serve with brunch? Tampa's new wine superstore has picks for every palate.

To the wine enthusiast, it's intoxicating. To fellow wine merchants - the competition - it's a little unsettling.

Total Wine & More opened in late August in the old Rooms to Go on Dale Mabry Highway near Interstate 275. The aisles stock 8,000 wines, 2,000 liquors and 1,000 beers from around the globe. A 127-page catalog gives shoppers descriptions and prices.

In its short tenure, the store has awakened an evidently groggy wine market and put independent retailers on alert. Whether it snuffs out the mom-and-pops remains to be seen.

Early indications, however, show that the Tampa Bay market is deeper than many would expect, said David Trone, Total Wine's chief executive and co-owner. So far, sales are about 20 percent more than projections, and some customers are coming from 30 to 40 miles away.

Here's something else to note: Tampa's store is selling more $40 and up bottles than any other store, including ones in the wealthy bedroom communities of Philadelphia and New York City.

Trone's explanation? People are "tired of the supermarket selections." There's also a "ton of people with some serious money."

The store has a wine for every budget, from $4.29 for a Leaping Horse merlot to $849.99 for 1982 Chateau Margaux Bordeaux. I was impressed by all the exotic-looking labels for less than $10. A Kendall Jackson merlot looks so boring next to a Faux Frog.

The selection makes it hard to leave single-fisted. Katy Alderman, a board member of Tampa Bay Uncorked, said she managed to control herself but "knows people who went crazy" on their first visit.

One store clerk said her top sale was $3,489.

The low prices get many through the door. The 37-store chain, based in Potomac, Md., sells some bottles at below cost (in the hopes that people will buy ones that aren't) and matches any locally advertised price.

Even Jimmy Mela, co-owner of Vintage Wine Cellars on Henderson Boulevard, admitted that the prices are "very, very impressive."

Fortunately, so are the service and knowledge he offers his customers, many of whom know him by name.

Maintaining - and building - that rapport is the key to competing against the megastores, he said. Many shoppers prefer the personal attention and relaxed, cozy atmosphere.

"Wine is a more than just a consumable grocery store product," he said. "There's more to it than (there is to) laundry detergent."

Still, Total Wine's arrival has been the buzz of his shop. Customers often ask how he's doing and confess to shopping at that other store, but only for liquor, of course. This week, a wine distributor brought him a newspaper article from Charleston, S.C., about how small retailers there are surviving against Total Wine.

Mela, whose father started the business in 1978, isn't flinching. His shop will always fill a niche, he said. "I'm doing fine. No signs of leprosy yet."

The independent stores have numbers on their side. Last year, wine sales in the United States grew 4 percent to 668-million gallons, according to the Wine Institute. That's the equivalent of more than 38 gallons for every person in Florida.

Glynn Giacone, owner of Charlie's Wine Cellar & Wine Bar on S Howard Avenue, said location matters to most wine shoppers. People who want to stock up for a party or wedding may make the trip to Total Wine, but they'll stop by their neighborhood store for a bottle or two.

"How much time do people want to invest in going over there?" he said, exaggerating that the light to turn into Total Wine takes "an hour and a half."

He doesn't expect a huge hit from Total Wine but isn't taking anything for granted, especially now with the money-soaked holidays fast approaching.

"I could look at my balance sheet in a few months and go, "Oh, my gosh!"' he said.

I guess to keep everyone happy, there's just one thing for us all to do. Buy more wine.

THE LAST DROP: Vintage Wine Cellars, at 3629 Henderson Blvd., celebrates the grapes of southern France's Rhone Valley with a seminar and wine tasting tonight at 7. The cost is $20. Charlie's Wine Bar, at 533 S Howard Ave., pairs Argentinean wine and grilled pork during a tasting at 7:30 tonight. Cost is $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 09:03:09]