A New Kind of Wine Store Opens in North Naples
If you’ve been through the Shoppes at Vanderbilt lately, there’s a rather large new addition. The Good Pour opened earlier this month in a new 7,200-square-foot building on Vanderbilt Beach Road, and despite appearances, it’s not quite a conventional wine store.
The reason I’d stop in is the wall of self-serve tasting machines. Sixteen wines are available in 1-, 3- or 6-ounce pours, so you can actually try the expensive bottle you’ve been eyeing before taking it home. There’s a separate machine for seven spirits (including harder-to-find bourbons and tequila) and a staffed tasting bar offering complimentary tastes.
This is The Good Pour’s fifth Florida store but its first outside Central Florida, and the Naples location is locally operated by Ivo Atanasov and Jeff Nichols. They’ve stocked more than 6,000 bottles, but they’re also trying to make the place somewhere you stay awhile: there’s an outdoor patio, a private tasting room and a calendar of visiting winemakers, distillers and classes.
One other detail I liked: when you buy something, you can choose a nonprofit to receive a portion of the sale. Local organizations in the program include Youth Haven, NCEF, Humane Society Naples and Champions For Learning.
The store is still very new. Its official grand-opening weekend isn’t until October 16–18. But for anyone who has ever bought a $50 bottle based mostly on a nice label and optimism, the one-ounce pour alone seems worth investigating.
The Good Pour
2373 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples
Mon–Sat, 10 AM–10 PM; Sun, 10 AM–7 PM
Originally published in
The Naples Florida Review.
Read the full edition here.