Mission Statement - Services And Products We Provide As A Specialty Wine Store

Education - Our First Priority

Helping people learn about wine is one of the most important things specialty stores (and restaurants) can do. No other store in the area puts the emphasis on education we do through our courses, monthly wine tastings, food and wine pairings, in-home tastings and wine/dinners, as well as our help in the store. Emphasis on education is the reason we got involved in retailing and is without doubt the main reason for our success.

Our goal is to help people understand something about wine structure, what makes a good wine versus a poor wine, and why they like or dislike various wines. We help them explore the many different types and styles of wines--all the time keeping in a price range they prefer.

We also spend a lot of time helping patrons with various entertaining needs and advising about wine and food pairings for dinners. Use of the wine bar at the Raleigh store to sample and talk about wine and wine and food pairing is an enjoyable and especially meaningful way to learn.

Products - Depth, Breadth, Value and Completeness

What really makes a specialty store special is providing good supplies of exciting, top quality wines in all price ranges that represent the basic types and styles from all the major wine producing regions. The greatest challenge is the $5-15 price range that constitutes our largest volume of wine sales. That's where we work the hardest, it's what separates us from supermarkets and large discount retailers. We continue to be excited about the contacts we have made to help us find these wines.

Providing a good selection of quality accouterments enriches the product line of specialty wine stores and makes their services more complete. A good example of this is the great success we have had in retailing the world famous Riedel wine glasses.

Initiative - Find New Ways To Serve Our Customer's Needs

We are constantly trying new approaches to serve you even better. If you have any suggestions we would very much appreciate your input. Our latest proposal, to help you experience and better understand the many different types of wines available as well as provide some great bargains, the Wine Sampler Pack Program has proven to be an oustanding success.

Please let us know your thoughts and comments about your experiences with our Sampler Pack Program or any of our other ventures.