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Wine Merchant closing up shop

Owners brought in expertise and variety to town

Over 14 years, the owners of The Wine Merchant helped Durangoans’ tastes change and expand, and they expect more change is on the horizon for local liquor lovers and retailers.

But the store won’t be part of it, because on Sept. 30, it is closing and co-owner Eric Allen is retiring.

Allen and his business-partner, Lesley Ponce, are leaving the industry knowing they helped introduce local taste buds to the vast array of wines they love.

“It’s a living product. It’s different every year,” Allen said.

When Allen left wine distribution to open The Wine Merchant, he could not get the wine he was passionate about because small distributors with specialty products focused on the Front Range and resort towns such as Aspen and Vail.

So the store trucked wine in from Denver. It gave the store an edge and allowed the owners to try new things.

“We were one of the first ones to get behind rosé,” Allen said.

After they opened in 2002, some smaller distributors came to town, giving consumers more variety to choose from.

That variety could be poised to shrink again in the wake of a new Colorado law signed this summer that will allow grocery stores to sell full-strength alcohol. Over the next 20 years, grocery stores will be allowed to gradually purchase 20 licenses. After that, stores would be allowed to obtain unlimited licenses.

If liquor stores are within 1,500 feet of a grocery store that plans to get a liquor license, the grocery store has to buy out that liquor store.

To Allen, it’s an excellent compromise, but it will impact the market. Wines such as Yellow Tail and Barefoot are likely to be the most widely available, Ponce said.

“You will not see interesting new wine selections. They won’t have trained staff,” Allen said.

Both Ponce and Allen got started in California and have brought expertise to their shop and to town.

When pressed, they both will pick a favorite variety. For Allen, it’s burgundy, and for Ponce, it’s true champagne. But it’s the exploration of wine they really enjoy, and they have the experience to track down the flavors customers are after.

“For every customer that comes in, it’s a game of questions,” Ponce said.

Ponce got her start giving tours in a northern California winery on the weekends and went on to get a degree in enology – the study of wines and wine making – and viticulture – the science of grapes.

In 1976, Allen started working in a gourmet shop that sold wine when he was 27 in San Francisco.

“I was put in charge of the wine inventory, and it was trial by fire,” he said.

Later, he went into distribution, but he found suppliers are able to control distribution through quotas and he was selling some products he didn’t believe in.

The Wine Merchant offered freedom.

In retirement, he couldn’t say where he would shop for his wine.

“For awhile I don’t have to worry about it because my cellar is spilling over,” he said.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

Oct 11, 2016
Wine Shop reborn from closed business


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