Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Bob & Sheree’s Wine Shoppe: A Fayetteville Icon by CAREY CLARK First opened in March of 1980, Bob & Sheree’s Wine Shoppe has been an icon in Fayetteville for the last 30 years. When fi rst generation Italian Robert Accetturo moved to North Carolina with Sheree, they were seeking to combine Sheree’s California wine training with Bob’s retail and pub business experience. North Carolina did not even have a liquor license to handle Bob and Sheree’s request. A license had to be specially crafted to allow them to work with both beer and wine, and to allow taste testing to be handled on the premises. Bob and Sheree were eventually asked to make a choice between wine tasting or beer tasting, the state would not allow both. In the end, they chose to offer wine tasting. Although Bob passed away Christmas of 2009, the business remains a family run business with Sheree at the helm and their son, Nunzio, helping run the two Fayetteville shops. Family and history are an important part of the life of the shop. Sheree speaks with passion about not only the business, but the importance of community and culture and how “bringing the best to the table” helps others make and maintain their connections with their loved ones. The shop’s main vision is educating its patrons in making personal selections that will please each individual’s palate. Its goal is to “help you make the right decision every time you come in,” says Sheree. She equates selecting the right beer or wine to people selecting a particular scent to wear. “I can’t ask someone to wear my perfume,” she says, “It fi ts like a puzzle, Sheree offering a toast in the shop. and white. there is not one grape for everyone — each person is different.” She is so committed to satisfaction that the shop offers a 100 percent unconditional money back guarantee on purchases made, even if you just did not like it. The shop prides itself on offering a wide variety of wine and beers that are not available elsewhere in the community. A best seller for the last 15 years, Moscato With two locations, (2828 Raeford Rd. and 238 Hay St., Bob & Sheree’s Wine Shoppe offers much more than a fantastic selection of beer and wine from around the world. The shop offers “vintage hospitality” that is rare in our fast-paced society. Be sure to check out their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/pages/ Bob-Sherees-Wine-Shoppe. CAREY CLARK, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. The Wine Cafe’ Explores the Complexities of the Grape by ROXANNA ROSS Wine afi cionados in search of special labels, those who want to learn more about grapey goodness and people just hunting for a unique gathering place can all fi nd what they’re looking for at The Wine Café, which uncorked about six months ago in Hope Mills’ Millstone Towne Centre. A retail store and tasting room, The Wine Café offers close to 200 labels of wines and craft beers from all over the world for sale by the bottle, as well as a constantly changing selection of 12 wines at a high-tech, self-serve tasting station. At least once a month, the café holds a free wine tasting. Because they are held at different times, customers can check the business’s Facebook page or the café’s web site, www.thewinecafeus.com, to fi nd out when the next event will be. On July 7, the store’s owners, Angie and Ray Malave, celebrated their birthdays with a tasting of their personal favorite wines. As well as sharing the same vintage — they were born on the same day in the same year — they also have an interesting love story. As children in Puerto Rico, Angie and Ray were middle- school sweethearts, though she says he got mad at her because she wouldn’t kiss him. Fast forward 25 years, add a Facebook reconnection, and Angela found herself in a place she never thought she’d be. Not just by moving to Cumberland County, but opening her own business. “I always had a dream of opening my own business, but it’s hard to quit your job and start a new venture,” she said. But it wasn’t too hard to quit her healthcare marketing job to move to this area — a Grenache — and then I was like, wine! Wine it is. It was out of the blue in a way, the revelation I was praying for.” In some ways, it wasn’t too surprising. In her many work and leisure travels all over the world, she says she always went places with vineyards. “I’ve always been a wine lover,” she said. “I consider wine like an art. The complexity of producing the wine … it amazes me how you can open a bottle of wine today, and the same vintage one year later will taste completely different.” Taste is something to experience at The Wine Café. The café’s tasting station works with pre-paid cards, which the business loads like a debit card for a one-time fee of $3, or for free if the customer puts $30 or more on the card. The reusable, rechargeable card is put into the tasting station by the customer, who then pulls down a glass from the rack overhead and chooses a 1 ½-ounce taste, a 3-ounce half glass, or a 5-ounce full cup of wine with a push of a button. Angie Malave, of The Wine Cafe’, draws a sample of wine. The choice of wines in the tasting station is changed every couple of weeks. Prices vary with the selection, but recently ranged from $1.50 to $5.40 for a taste, and $5.20 to $18 for a full glass. “The idea is for the customer to experiment with different varieties,” she said. “I can be talking about wine for a long time, but until a customer tastes it, the aromas and fl avors … it opens the mind of many customers to try things they’d never ventured to try before and expand their palate.” The store’s wine selection is divided by new world wines (from Chile, Argentina, to be with Ray, who recently retired from the military. The couple was married in December. “When Ray was ready to retire, we could have gone anywhere, but I really like the people here, the charm of the southern thing,” she said. “In developing the concept for the store, I wanted a big-city concept in a small city with a community feel for it.” Figuring out what that concept should be was a little harder, but, in her choice of business, like her marriage, she sees a divine hand. “I prayed,” she said. “The same way God brought me here and put us together, he will show me the business. Then we were having wine one afternoon in the backyard WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM South Africa, New Zealand and the United States) old world wines (Europe), sparkling, and sweet. Labels on the racks list tasting notes and pairing suggestions. The café also offers deli plates, cupcakes, gift baskets and can make special orders for labels that customers are looking for. The Wine Café is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. ROXANA ROSS, Contributing Writer, Up & Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. JULY 13-19, 2011 UCW 9 D’Asti by the Saracco family was brought to Fayetteville by Bob and Sheree. Sheree recounts that when Bob was born in Chicago, the midwife listed on Bob’s birth certifi cate was from the Saracco family. They also have upwards of 1,200 beers available at any given time. When Sam Adams introduced its limited edition Infi nium beer last year, the entire state of North Carolina was only allotted 40 cases. Sheree’s shop was given one case. She called the company directly to plead for more than those 12 bottles for the Fayetteville community, and was rewarded with an additional three cases. She took no advance orders, but offered them on a fi rst-come fi rst-served basis — one bottle per person. Active in the community, the shop hosted wine tastings on Fort Bragg for the incoming commanders for more than 15 years. In past years they have hosted afternoon wine tastings at the shop, with the well-known DJs of Bob and Sheri in the Morning, capitalizing on the name word play. The shop’s staff has also taught classes to the staffs at local restaurants, helping to teach servers the proper way to serve and present wine, and how to deal with tricky customers. While many of the wines and beers you will fi nd on hand are imported, you can also fi nd some great local products. If you are looking to acquaint yourself with some North Carolina wines, Bob & Sheree’s may have the widest selection in the area. The shop carries many of the state’s wines in both red