Shelf life
by JEFF SCHMERKER - Ravalli Republic
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Jim Wood, owner of the Bitterroot Grocery Emporium in Hamilton, takes pride in the shop’s wine selection which features small vineyards and preferred vintages.
WILL MOSS - Ravalli Republic
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When most wine retailers decide to begin selling a new label they make their choice from a catalog and haul pallets of the shipped wine off a flatbed truck and cart them into the store.
When Jim Wood, owner of the Bitterroot Grocery Emporium, at 518 N. First St. in Hamilton, decides to begin selling a new wine, he often pulls bottles of the wine from his personal cellar and puts them on the rack for sale.
In the world of wine, where volume sales are dominated by large grocery chains, Wood and the Bitterroot Grocery Emporium are standouts.
The small grocery store sells spices by the ounce, hard-to-find ingredients for Thai and Mexican foods, and health and whole foods. But it also sells dozens of hand-picked high-caliber wines.
Selections currently on the shelf include the lovely A to Z Oregon Pinot Noir, a classic Benton-Lane 2007 Pinot Noir and the spectacular Louis M. Martini Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon. And also in there is a vertical flight of cabs from the renowned Napa Valley winemaker, Silver Oak, which Wood pulled from his personal collection and labelled for sale because, well, he needed to make room to store other wines.
Wood has tasted and chosen all the wines he sells.
“Some I purchase with a customer in mind,” he said. “Some I purchase based on the strength of professional reviews. And some I purchase because I like them and want to pass that on.”
Back in the 1990s, Wood and his wife, Jamie, were working as coffee roasters in New Mexico. Wood was selling coffee to top regional restaurants and got to know the chefs, one in particular who showed him how to pair wine with spicy foods -- a difficult proposition. About the same time, customers started describing their coffees the way wines were traditionally described, using words like “notes” and “finish.”
The Woods eventually sold their business and moved to the Bitterroot, where his family had owned land. He worked a variety of jobs before opening the grocery store in 1996.
The wine selection at the store will baffle many people schooled on grocery store selections. Most wines come from small producers unheard of outside wine circles. Few of them have cute labels with animals on them. And most are $15 and up.
Though more than a cheap bottle at Wal-Mart, those $15 bottles are in many cases a great deal, Wood said. It costs about the same to make a $4 bottle of wine as it does a $400 bottle of wine; the price is based solely on demand. So, by focusing on unknown producers, Wood says he can sell a great wine at a price much lower than you’d expect to pay when that producer becomes hip.
“When those wines become popular, you know the price is going to go up,” he said. “We try to find wines nobody knows about.”
He added: “We don’t get the customer until they decide they want to explore wine. When they make that decision, the run out of choices at the grocery store pretty quick.”
Wood said he likes to make wine recommendations based on what customers say they like.
Through the years the Woods have purchased for personal consumption wine they liked, but later decided they had too much and wanted to make room for other varieties. That happened with a cache of Opus One and now is being used to thin out a repository of the Silver Oak.
Wood is selling bottles from 1995, 1996 and 1997. Prices start at $115 a bottle.
Not cheap, admits Wood, though don’t go thinking he’s making a lot of money from the deal.
“It’s not a great return on investment,” he said. “Most people who buy wine on futures are pretty disappointed. I don’t collect to get a return on investment, I do it to get a return on effort.”
For more information, go to www.bitterrootgroceryemporium.com.
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Reporter Jeff Schmerker can be reached at jeff.schmerker@ravallirepublic.com.
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