Issue link: http://southshoremagazine.uberflip.com/i/771981
42 Most wine drinkers know the names Rioja, Tuscany and Bordeaux, but there is a whole world of wine to be found in 'undiscovered' regions beyond these places in Spain, Italy and France (how about Jumilla, Sardinia and Chinon?). And this is true of any other wine producing country. One of our wine department's goals was to bring these little known places to you. "We wanted to add wines to the store from small, unique regions," said Blackman. "Many of these regions are home to producers making very interesting wines; wines that you don't find everywhere." That is an important point. In addition to having all of the popular choices, we wanted to add wines that you cannot find in any other store. If you are looking to try something different and new, we want Kappy's Fine Wine & Spirits to be your destination store. Spirits is the hottest category in the beverage industry these days. Like our wine department, we felt that our spirits department would benefit from the addition of interesting, small production, 'boutique' spirits. We have brought in dozens of such bottlings across all categories and we have plans to bring in many more. Small batch, small production, highly allocated whiskies have led the way in this category's rise in popularity. Some of these bottles have become tough fish to land, but we have gotten our hands on some of the best in the past year. Check out our "Whiskey Corner" for a huge selection of all of the best brands from known national and international staples to local, upstart distillers. And while whiskey has been the driving force behind spirits' reemergence, we have seen recent growth and interest in other categories from craft Gins and local Rums to Italian Amaros and boutique Liqueurs. You can be sure that we will be on top of the next trend with a plethora of choices. If spirits is the hottest category in the industry right now, then craft beer is a close second. Actually, I should be more specific here, as the craft beer revolution that got its start a couple of decades ago has spawned hundreds (perhaps, thousands) of Microbreweries (think craft beer size divided by about three or four hundred), which in turn has inspired legions of garage-sized brewers going under the "Nano brewery" designation. The beers in these categories take up more real estate on our shelves than ever. In fact, over the past few months, the beer department here has been transformed into what we believe is the best that the South Shore has to offer! With our customers' shopping experience and ease of accessibility a priority, we Kappy's Fine Wine & Spirits is on to year number two here in Norwell, and we could not have asked for a better beginning. We have made many new friends and have been welcomed into the community with open arms. We inherited a great store and made it our goal to make it even greater by adding more events and tastings and holding bigger sales and promotions, all while expanding choices across all departments. We worked on all of these objectives in year number one and will continue to work further on them in the weeks and months to come. We have hosted many exciting events in the store over the past year, including numerous fun tastings and bottle signings, but likely the most noticeable of our accomplished goals right now is the changes that we have made across our wine, spirits and beer sections. Kappy's Fine Wine & Spirits has always strived to offer our customers the best and biggest selection of products. We are always going to have the hottest new wines, spirits and beers, and we will continue to make sure that we get our hands on some of the most limited selections as well. Here is a look at some of the additions that we have made to each section so far... This location has always been home to a great wine selection, so we knew that it was going to take some effort to make it even better, but we think that we have accomplished exactly that. Led by wine industry veterans Martin Blackman and Gregg Cobbett, we have reinvigorated the wine shelves with plenty of new choices. Many of the top names from California, France and Italy are still here, but we saw an opportunity to expand and diversify our selection, which will serve to freshen up things, so to speak. I think that you will like what we have done! by Joe Selby KAPPY'S KICKS OFF YEAR TWO IN NORWELL by Joe Selby