BY KADIE VICK
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — The Lucky Flight Bottle Shoppe provides boutique wine and events for customers looking for a place to spend time with friends over a glass of wine.
“I wanted to take a leap of faith and fulfill a dream of owning a boutique,” said Owner Annie Lee. “I was looking for a good place to buy a bottle of boutique wine, and there wasn’t an option, so we created one. We specialize in boutique wines from small and family-owned vineyards. They’re not as commercialized as a lot of the name brands you see out there that are processed and mass-produced. So you really are getting a great quality wine.”
Lee said that customers at the Lucky Flight Bottle Shoppe can enjoy using wine dispensers to have a true try-before-you-buy experience.
“The star of our show is our wine dispensers,” she said. “They’re the first in the state of Alabama. The way they work is that a customer can set up a wine card by syncing a credit card, then they go up to the machine and tap to receive a 1-ounce pour for a sample. You can do a 3-ounce pour for half a glass or a 6-ounce pour for a full glass, so they really are state-of-the-art machines. So, it is a true try-before-you-buy experience.”
For those who experience headaches when drinking red wine, Lee said that the wine at the Lucky Flight Bottle Shoppe does not have the chemicals, dyes or sugars that can cause that negative reaction.
“A lot of the known name brands, they’re mass produced, so there’s going to be a lot of chemicals, dyes and sugars that are put in there for preservation,” she said. “So, you might hear people say they get headaches after drinking red wine. A lot of times that can be caused by things added to the wine. People like to throw around the word ‘sulfates,’ but sulfates are in your pizza. Does a slice of pizza give you a headache? It’s really what kind of wine you are drinking.”
The wine produced by boutique vineyards produces smaller batches of wine, and Lee said that makes a big difference in quality.
“If you think about it, for something to be placed into Kroger’s, they have to produce a lot of wine all at once to distribute that many bottles,” she said. “When you’re dealing with boutique wine, these are smaller productions, they’re smaller vineyards and usually it’s family-owned. They’ve got fifth or sixth generation winemakers, so it’s a different quality.”
Lee said that she enjoys providing events for the community to come together over a glass of wine. The Lucky Flight Bottle Shoppe typically hosts a weekly event, frequently designed to include wine tasting, and one larger event each month.
“We’ve seen an increase in our locals and our regulars wanting more activities, events and reasons for them to get together to be a part of the community,” Lee said. “We’ve really enjoyed that because we want everyone to feel like this is their hometown wine shop. I think we’ve seen an increase in wine sales in general, because people are starting to realize that this is really good wine.”
Some of the weekly events include a weekly Happy Hour with wine dispensers 40% off, as well as frozen mimosas on Saturdays.
“On Wednesdays, we do happy hour, so the wine dispensers go to 40% off, and we have a loyal following for Wednesdays, so we are usually packed,” she said. “We do a wine tasting on either Thursday or Friday, it kind of just depends on when a distributor is available. The wine tastings usually feature like six bottles, and you get about a 1-ounce pour to sample.”
Lee said she has felt very supported by the community and enjoys when customers come back to visit with their friends.
“It’s been incredible, everyone has really been supportive,” she said. “I think the community does a great job of trying to help spread the word to get more people here. We always have a fun group of ladies who will show up with 10 of their neighbors. Half of them were from out of town, who didn’t know we were here. That’s always fun to see, it gives people a reason to get together.”
For more information, visit the Lucky Flight Bottle Shoppe on Facebook or at www.luckyflightbottleshoppe.com.
