Local vineyard opens mall location for holidays
Leal Vineyards recently opened a second tasting room and retail
store in the Westfield Valley Fair shopping mall in Santa Clara for
the holidays.
Local vineyard opens mall location for holidays
Leal Vineyards recently opened a second tasting room and retail store in the Westfield Valley Fair shopping mall in Santa Clara for the holidays.
For the past few weeks people have been able to pull up a stool and taste a nice merlot while they waited for a significant other or sample a syrah between shopping stops.
The store was opened to allow customers a chance to taste and purchase wine inside the mall while conducting their other shopping. A trend in California in wine consumption drove the opening of the temporary tasting room. Californians drink 18 percent of the wine consumed nationwide. When they first opened the store, Leal staff saw the holiday entertaining and gift-giving season as an opportunity to boost wine sales among mall shoppers.
In addition to offering a selection of wines to sample at their Santa Clara location, the shop also featured a selection of gift baskets.
“This was a first of sorts for Valley Fair,” said Tasting Room Manager Chris Walker. “Frank [Leal] came up with the idea and called the management up there. Typically they offer you a cart or a kiosk, but they had an empty shop, so it worked great.”
Though Leal doesn’t have any plans to operate a shop at Valley Fair full-time, their first venture there was very successful, according to Walker.
“Westfield Valley Fair is always looking for new and unique retailers to compliment the existing mix of stores,” said Kurt Utterback, the general manager of Westfield Valley Fair, when the store first opened. “Westfield supports local companies and is very excited to welcome Leal Vineyards to Valley Fair.”
At the end of the month, the wine room will shut down shop.
“We leased the store for the month of December and during that time we’ve gotten close to 125 new club members and sales were good,” Walker said. “However, due to rent, a year-round location would probably not be very profitable, but we’ll probably do it next Christmas as well.”
One of the nice things about the location in Santa Clara, according to Walker, is since Leal wines are already in a number of bars and restaurants in and around the San Jose area, the people shopping at Valley Fair already knew the brand.
“It’s been great. A lot of people have been very surprised,” Walker said. “The only downside is it’s a lot of work because we have to stay open during the mall hours which during that time of year means we’re working 15-hour days.”
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at po*******@pi**********.com
