We are nearing the two week anniversary of our opening and it’s hard to believe it’s only been 12 days. It has gone by so fast, but has also felt like we’ve been open for months. Things are definitely starting to click at the store, and we’re getting excited about all of the opportunities that lay ahead of us. In order to share all of our news, we are starting a new blog entry that you will see from time to time. For the moment I am calling it “Grape News!” (get it?) but given that I’ve had two glasses of wine, I might be thinking the name is cuter than it really is. So, I’m open to suggestions!
Inventory – About 99% of our wine inventory is in house and shelved, but TJ loves to shop and can’t stop buying wines (we used to take care of this shopaholic issue by sending him to Target, but he’s been too busy…hence an incredible selection of wines). All of this adds up to mean that our inventory will remain fresh and interesting. We are starting to taste the portfolios of smaller distributers and wine makers, which means we have some incredibly unique and highly allocated wines on our wall.
Our craft beer section is now home to over 100 craft beers, available in six-packs and bombers. Starting this weekend our resident beer guy, Noah, will start unraveling the beers for us with a weekly guest blog.
As for the bourbon section, it is growing daily. I’ve never seen so many beautiful bottles in one place and wish that I liked the stuff just so I could have an excuse to buy one. We are lucky to have many bottles of the highly allocated Pappy Van Winkle (we used to have to get it from my brother in Texas), among many other hard to find bourbons, scotches and whiskeys.
Tastings – Starting next week The Urban Grape will be offering free wine tastings on Thursday and Friday nights from 5-7 pm and Saturday afternoons from 1-3 pm. The ever entertaining and charming Ryan Sansosti from Ruby Wines will be in the store on Thursday July 1, pouring Charles & Charles Rose, Forefront by Pine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc, Falchini Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Two Paddocks Picnic Pinot Noir, and Aramis Shiraz Cabernet. We look forward to seeing you at the first of these weekly tastings!
Events – Our media day last week generated lots of fun events that we can’t wait to announce in more detail. But as a tease, we can tell you that we will soon be hosting a Yelp Elite event for Yelp’s best reviewers, a Boston Uncorked event, a Second Glass Crash Course, a blogger event hosted by Michelle from The Economical Eater that focuses on wines under $15, and a Champagne tasting followed by a showing of Eclipse at our neighboring movie theatre. If you are interested in the Eclipse event on June 10 (late afternoon showing followed by a Champagne tasting and Team Edward vs Team Jacob face-off), please let me know as soon as possible so that I can start to get a head count.
Our events kick off on Wednesday June 30th from 6-9 pm with TJ pouring Cooper Hill Pinot Gris and Piazzo Barbera at Ted Baker on Newbury Street while they preview their new clothing collection. Be sure to stop by and say hello to him!
Media Visits – Our media tour has continued this week with visits from Stephen Meuse, who writes the Boston Globe’s amazing Plonk column, Julia Timakhovich from the Boston Wine Examiner, the well-respected wine writer Jonathon Alsop from the Boston Wine School and, in a flurry of love and honey, Chef Robin White – who declared on Twitter (@canapes45) that anyone “within 100 miles” should immediately visit The Urban Grape!
Odds and Ends – Look for our first newsletter on July 1. If you’ve not yet signed up, please do so by clicking here, or leave your email with us at the store. Our amazing triptych by Mary Steinbacher has arrived and is being installed on the back wall tomorrow. Our logo’d Urban Sampler boxes have arrived and look fantastic – even better than we hoped!
And we got a little extra signage on our windows, which should help passersby know we are open and ready for biz-nezz.
Last but not least, our Enomatic selections will change on MONDAY, so make sure you stop in to see our next 16 selections of wine – free to taste any time!
Are these smaller distributors the same as “local”? Would love to see (ie taste) some local wine! ps – I think ‘Grape News!’ is cute and I’ve only had a smoothie to drink today. =P
Comment by GirlyGreenGirl — June 25, 2010 @ 12:54 pm
In some cases they are local, but mostly these are more unique bottles that are brought in by smaller distributors. For example, when I tweeted you yesterday we were sampling from a very small distributor who had only organic wines! The wines were amazing and not something you’d see in every store, etc. Local wines will be coming, but we don’t have a ton of them in quite yet.
Comment by urbanadmin — June 25, 2010 @ 1:19 pm
Awesome – can’t wait to see all the new organic wines!!
Comment by GirlyGreenGirl — June 25, 2010 @ 2:28 pm