Cheerios and nitrite-free hot dogs find their way into shopping carts every day at Wegmans stores across Pennsylvania.
But add a bottle of wine to the mix and it becomes a downright historic event for customers like Liza Hess, fresh from the King of Prussia store’s new wine room with a bottle of Pinnacle Ridge Chambourcin.
To complement the hot dogs?”Maybe,” she said, laughing. “I’m always in here shopping, so this is wonderful that I can get wine here now. It’s so convenient.”
Hess admitted she has sipped her share of vino while dining at Wegmans on-site restaurant The Pub several times since the King of Prussia store opened at 1 Village Dr. four years ago.
But not until Pennsylvania’s new liquor laws recently took hold, allowing supermarkets to sell wine, was she able to buy a bottle to go.
Pennsylvania wine aficionados like Hess raised a toast to Gov. Tom Wolf back in June when he signed into law Pennsylvania House Bill 1690, now known as Act 39, which prompted monumental changes to the state’s liquor code, loosening restrictions on alcohol sales and enabling licensed restaurants to offer wine-to-go sales to their customers.
Wegmans has applied for wine permits for all 17 of its Pennsylvania stores and by November 17, expects to offer wine in all 17 locations. The number of wines will be determined by the space available in each store.
Several Wegmans across the tri-county region have already started to sell wine to go. The King of Prussia Wegmans rolled out its wine sales on Oct. 26, while the Collegeville store at Providence Town Center officially launched its sales on Wednesday.
On the heels of Mechanicsburg, the Allentown store, like King of Prussia, began wine sales Oct. 26. Downingtown and Montgomeryville followed close behind two days later. The Wilkes-Barre store also began selling wine on Wednesday, Concordville and Scranton roll out wine sales on Nov. 4.
Not surprisingly, Wegmans shoppers couldn’t be happier that shelves of wine from a stunning variety of vineyards are keeping company with the sweeping array of gourmet and everyday items the chain is famous for, noted Jo Natale, Wegmans vice president of media relations.
“We’re only days into this at this point, but the feedback we’re getting at King of Prussia and everywhere we’ve gone live with this is only positive,” Natale noted. “Customers love the convenience. They mention that over and over again. They do love the availability of local Pennsylvania wine and they like the fact that they’re shopping for wine in the same place that they’re shopping for food, because wine complements the meal.”
Prominently showcased in the King of Prussia wine room that occupies the space formerly devoted to cafe seating are vintages from a number of Pennsylvania producers, including Blue Ridge, Chadds Ford, Broad Mountain and the aforementioned Pinnacle Ridge.
A cabernet from California’s Dark Horse vineyard currently beloved by store manager Kevin Lang is on display just inside the wine room entrance.
Many well-versed customers are fairly sophisticated when it comes to their tannins and bouquets when they come in to buy wine, noted Charlie Dunford, the newly appointed wine and beer team leader for the King of Prussia Wegmans.
All others who are open to suggestions may consider Dunford their wine steward of sorts in the coming weeks, as he and other employees become familiarized with Wegmans wines.
Natale said that each Wegmans store now has a beer and wine team leader, who has undergone additional training to help customers pair wine and food or point them toward a particular wine.
“Wine complements the meal. Our customers are so happy to shop for wine and beer in the same place they shop for food,” Natale added.
Each store will carry from 400 to 800 different kinds of wine, Natale said.
“It varies by store because we are limited by the space of the store. King of Prussia has 600 different varieties. Montgomeryville has a little more space to work with, so they have the largest selection of any Wegmans store, with 800,” she allowed. “People are very surprised by the selection. I don’t think they expected to have as many choices as we’re able to offer them at Wegmans.”
Natale added that the Collegeville store is also carrying 600 different varieties in its wine room. Like the King of Prussia store, some of the seating area in the Market Cafe was taken away in order to accommodate the space needed for wine sales. Display shelves were added, and the floor was replaced.
A trial run at the Mechanicsburg store back in early September set the pace for the program, Natale allowed.
“Mechanicsburg started with 80 wines and that was really a chance for both Wegmans the retailer and the PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) to understand the process, what demand was going to be, what the process would be. We learned a lot through that pilot, then went live with the full selection a few weeks ago. Last week we began to roll it out with all of our stores and each week we’re adding four more stores until Nov. 17, when all of our stores will be fully stocked for the holidays.”
Shoppers and foodies alike can look forward to more cooking and wine presentations at all stores in the imminent future, Natale promised.
“We like to bring in local and other wineries to present their wines and talk to customers about wine and food. So it opens up a lot of opportunities and a lot of engagements for us, and a lot of excitement in our stores.”
Donna Rovins contributed to this report.