Sip on a self-serve wine-tasting machine and get educated at Winestore
If you’re looking for a wine shop with personality, stop in at Winestore in SouthPark. I wandered in this past sunny Sunday. The doors were flung open wide, so why not?
You’ll notice three things inside this North-Carolina-based establishment when you first step inside: The self-serve wine-tasting machine is smack-dab in front of you. The decor is really hot pink. And everything is intensely organized.
Once you side-step the machine (because you don’t know how to navigate it yet) you can gravitate toward the store-length wine wall that is organized by color and body, from light white to light red. The wall is intended to feature the lowest prices in the state for those wines. In front of the wall is a table meant to feature the lowest prices in the country for the selected wines.
Worth noticing on the table are wine barrels with vivid designs. The barrels are $39.99 and hold four bottles of wine, as a more aesthetically-pleasing version of boxed wines. The wine inside should stay fresh for two months after opening.
Also worth checking out are the smaller shelving units set up around the store and labeled with pink, bubble-like signs. Those signs are quite useful — they pop with personality-driven wine categories like “girls night out,” “date night,” “anniversary” and my personal favorite, “tax refund.” (In case you need to know an option to get with that tax refund: A Precessi Napa Red.)
This store obviously aims to accommodate any possible need for wine you might have. In that vein, another sign offers more reasons: “Vacation, bad day, Monday, just because…” and so on. The prices fit that everyday-need concept too, with bottles available for $5.99 and up, and most wines coming in at less than $25.
Back to that wine machine. There are actually two — the one you see when you first walk in, featuring a variety of reds, and one built into the back wall, featuring whites and rosés. Pay $1 and you activate a wine card to keep, and add cash to. Stick the card in the machine of your choice, grab a glass and pick a wine, press the button above that wine, and get a 1-oz. pour. Pour prices are based on overall bottle prices and my pour was just $0.50.
Aside from the wine machines, my favorite aspect of the experience here was the omnipresence of winekeys. Every featured wine had one, telling me color, body, flavors and what to pair it with. Take this Petit Verdot/Petite Syrah blend, for example. The winekey pointed to: Red, full and astringent, black cherry and black berry. Best paired with steak (being a vegetarian, I’ll ignore that). And an anecdote on the sign with the winekey rambled with more descriptors: “Jammy, spicy, jammy, dark and, oh, did I mention jammy? Think Justin the Orphan on steroids.”
Popping between columns of winekeys were also placards for 2015 and 2016 BOB Awards from Charlotte Magazine. That recognition was starting to make sense at this point in my experience.
And whether or not you leave with a bottle isn’t important. There’s no sense of expectation. Unless you’re opting for curbside pickup — then you need to call ahead.
You could hang out and have a tasting on your own at the self-serve machines. You could also come in for one of the designated tasting activities: Saturdays feature themed tastings, while Thursdays feature free tastings from 6-8 p.m.
Happy tasting.
Winestore: 720 Governor Morrison St., Suite 150 and other locations.
Photos: Katie Toussaint
This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 10:00 PM.