A Bottle of Red, a Bottle of White, The Wine to Buy
When you walk into TheWineToBuy.com, it’s as though you have entered a wine-lovers wonderland. The walls and floor space are lined with rows of neatly stacked bottles, each unique and carefully curated by industry experts. TheWineToBuy.com is a brick-and-mortar and online retail shop located in Gulf Gate, owned by Mitch and Debra Soffer. On a recent afternoon Mitch took time out of a busy day to chat about wine, his thriving business, and future plans.
In 2005 Mitch and Debra relocated to Sarasota from New Jersey and saw potential in an existing wineshop with limited offerings. Even though they had no intention to own a wineshop, they acquired it just six months after their move and grew the business to become Sarasota’s top retailer of fine wine. Now in its 15th year, this local business has seen its third location, has won three gold awards from Wine-Searcher, and is expanding to include a new wine bar.
While some of us started our wine journeys with bottles found on the lower shelves at grocery stores, Mitch and Debra were sipping Napa Valley reserve Cabernets right out of high school while working at a wine and spirits shop alongside oenophile mogul Gary Fisch. Gary is president and CEO of Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, a New Jersey—based retailer that brought in $58 million in revenue last year alone, has expanded to include five locations, and boasts a newly opened West Coast location in the former Dean & DeLuca space in Napa Valley. Gary was also Debra’s second cousin and that was how the couple met.
“We were spoiled at a young age,” says Mitch. “Gary showed us real wine from the beginning.”
After eight years of honing his skills and gaining a wealth of knowledge, Mitch’s career evolved to working in distribution for nearly two decades before diving into his own endeavor.
While owning a wineshop may seem like the best job on earth, there’s a lot of work involved.
“We’re not sitting around waiting for customers. We take it very seriously. There’s a lot of effort behind this. We spend more hours researching wine in this business than probably anybody.”
Customers get the best bang for their buck based on three factors: quality, price, and availability.
“We taste a lot of wine and don’t buy wine for any other reasons than we like it or it’s an incredible pedigree. We like to get something in the customer’s hand that’s new to them, something exciting with exceptional quality and price. You want them to go ‘wow.’ The wow factor is important.”
Mitch explains how today’s customers benefit, compared to 10 or so years ago, because there are more wineries popping up and greater access to smaller wineries.
“Quality has ramped up, the winemaking has gotten better, the customer is getting a lot for their money.”
Bragging rights are in order: The store recently received three gold awards from Wine-Searcher’s Retailer Awards in Sarasota for Overall List, Rhone List, and Tuscan List. These awards are determined by having a wide range of high-quality wines based on critic scores, significant depth and breadth across regions, and consistency throughout the year.
As the business evolves and expands, a new wine bar is the works. It will house members’ wine lockers, a large tasting table for events, and the wine bar itself. Although the bar will be open to the public, club membership will be limited and invitation-only. The name will be Soprano Social Club. “We’ll work around that theme,” Mitch says. “It’s a Jersey thing.”
We can’t wait to see what’s in store and in our glasses!
The Wine to Buy: 2140 Gulf Gate Dr, Sarasota; 941-926-9463; thewinetobuy.com
