Excerpt from Napa Insider column, NorthBay biz magazine
By: Christina Julian
With the preponderance of wineries in Napa County, it’s a wonder any wine-based retail stores survive—yet they do. Bold contenders open up shop in the midst of a faltering economy, while old standbys do anything but stand still.
In much the same way that wine tasting is a personal affair, so too is today’s retail wine business. It’s a matter of mood, price and preference. Who has the juice and service that speaks most adeptly to the “eager to spend” consumer pool? Downtown Napa’s Bounty Hunter (also a restaurant and wine bar) has been at it for more than 17 years. In that time, circulation for the store catalog has grown from 40,000 to nearly 2.5 million recipients worldwide. Its scouts (also dubbed personal sommeliers, Wine Country advisers and, my favorite, wine gurus) taste between 5,000 and 6,000 wines per year. The shop’s mantra: “If it’s not great, we don’t sell it.” Makes sense, given that price-to-value ratio has never mattered more. While Bounty Hunter paved the road, many others have entered the market since, each forming a niche of its own, and all leaving the highfalutin’ wine attitude of yesteryear in the past—where it belongs. Click here for full article
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