New wine shop brings unique experience to Granville
No matter your tastes in wine, a new shop in Granville is here to meet all of your needs.
Village Wine Company opened in February at 126 S. Main St. in the heart of Granville. The shop is owned by husband and wife duo Adam Fleischer and Sam Smith and their friend and business partner, Amy Ashcraft. The shop is open noon-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The ownership trio said the shop offers a different kind of shopping experience where customers can share their preferences or the meal they’ll be having, and leave with a wine tailored to their needs.
With high top tables and barstools, a comfy couch and plush chairs, customers have said walking into the shop feels like coming into someone’s living room, Ashcraft said.
“It’s almost like they’re coming to a laid back party that you’re hosting,” Fleischer said.
Smith said they want customers to have a holistic shopping experience once they walk in the doors.
“It’s not just you’re coming in and you see no one and you pick something that you might like and you don’t know,” she said. “We’re here to educate and help you in that realm.”
Wines from all over the world can be found on Village Wine Company shelves, including bottles from Italy, France, Spain, Argentina, Chile and others.
Most of the shop’s wines cost between $15-$30 a bottle, but it also offers bottles under $15 as well as a handful between $75-$90, Fleischer said.
If shelves aren’t stocked with a particular wine a customer wants, Fleischer said they will special order singular bottles or even a case for customers if the wine is available for retail sale in Ohio.
But the shop offers more than just wine. They offer nonalcoholic wine, beer from Ohio breweries, to-go cocktails made by Fleischer, meats from Palumbo’s Italian Market, local cheeses from Black Radish Creamery and locally fresh-baked bread from Newark’s 710Bread.
Fleischer has extensive experience in the food and beverage industry. He and Smith owned a wine shop in Columbus before moving their family to Granville Township in 2021. Locally, he has worked at popular spots including Seek-no-further Cidery, Three Tigers Brewing Co. and Ray Ray’s Supper Club, where he met and became friends with Ashcraft, who is also a Granville Township resident.
Fleischer, Smith and Ashcraft each has their area of expertise. Fleischer brings his vast knowledge about wine, Smith supplies the creative vision behind the cozy and comfortable space, and Ashcraft provides the finanical wisdom, Smith said.
Smith and Fleischer said after moving to the area, they realized a wine shop would be a perfect fit in Granville and knew they were the right people to make it happen because of their experience.
Ashcraft said she knows as a consumer that there were very limited opportunities within the village to find wines that aren’t common brands that are available everywhere else. Village Wine
Company offers a different experience.
“You can sit down, you can have a glass of wine and experience it before you make the purchase. I think that really differentiates us,” she said.
Fleischer said the shop supports smaller growers and procedures, which is an ethos that resonates in a small town like Granville.
“When you go to a grocery store or box store, they are brands that are owned by multinational corporations and investors, and their bottom line is the returns and the dividends and not deliciousness and the ecology, and the local economy,” he said.
Village Wine Company is more than just a shop. On Mondays, it offers a mixology class where Fleischer teaches how to make specialty cocktails. On Tuesdays, he teaches the basics behind two different wines, with the selections changing each week. The shop also offers a weekly wine tasting from 6-8 p.m. every Wednesday, with a different theme weekly. Customers sampled French wines a few weeks ago, and customers sampled four Spanish wines on Wednesday last week.
Jon and Lisa Barrett visited the shop for the first time during Wednesday’s tasting. As wine lovers, they have longed for a shop like Village Wine Company in Granville. Lisa Barrett said the business complements Granville well, and more spaces like this are needed as the area continues to grow because of Intel’s semiconductor factories being built south of Johnstown.
“It’s another place to be able to meet people and just a great place to come in and have conversations,” she said. mdevito@gannett.com 740-607-2175