The Bueno, the Cheapo…and the Vino

C’mon, wine lovers.  Tell me that the name alone doesn’t make you want to run right over to 770 S. Vista Avenue and check out this unassuming little wine shop.  Bueno Cheapo Vino opened its doors in November 2008 with little fanfare beyond word-of-mouth.  A December 16 article written by the Idaho Statesman’s Brad Talbutt, however, “blew the doors off” the business, according to owner Pat Brubaker and his wife and co-owner Heidi Jacobson.

I encourage you to read Brad’s story, since it will save me the effort of having to rehash the history of Bueno Cheapo Vino…and we can cut right to the chase of what the store is all about in this blog.

Suffice it to say, by way of prologue, that when one door closes, another opens.  In the case of Pat Brubaker, the closing door was his gig as Director of Operations at local ad agency Oliver Russell.  The door that opened was his and Heidi’s dream of having a wine shop with a concept similar to one they frequented in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they met and married.

While the name of Pat and Heidi’s shop leaves little doubt as to its “value proposition”, don’t make the mistake of dismissing Bueno Cheapo Vino as a “discount” wine store.  Pat and Heidi’s mission, and the business model on which it rests, is much more than that.  It’s about giving an American market enthralled with the elitist trappings of viticulture a more accessible, everyman experience of the pleasures of good wine.  Small wonder that the shop’s website tagline is “the people’s wine”.

So let’s take a look at the Bueno Cheapo Vino concept by breaking the name down to its component parts.

The Bueno

The operative word in the store’s name speaks to the selection of wines it stocks, which Pat and Heidi carefully select from a number of different distributors, both large and small.  What they look for is lesser-known gems from domestic and foreign vineyards, along with better-known vintages from less familiar sources.  Alongside the cabs and chards, you’ll find red wines from the Basque Country, crisply acidic chenin blancs from South Africa, and those most under appreciated of varietals (in Pat’s opinion), roses.

But “bueno” also applies to the kind of experience that Heidi and Pat are trying to create for their customers.  “We want to strip away the sense of luxuriousness that is wrapped around wine, and have people see it as the Europeans do – more of a commodity beverage than a luxury item,” says Pat.  “We want people to feel comfortable asking us questions about wine without feeling ‘dumb’.”  Essential to creating this experience is limiting the selection – not only to avoid “overwhelming” people with choice, but in order for Pat and Heidi to be able to speak to every wine on their floor from their own personal experience with it.  “If you can tell me a wine that you remember having liked,” says Pat, “I can probably identify one that we have with a similar flavor profile.  But we can tell you about all of them.”

The Cheapo

Another obvious attribute of the Bueno Cheapo Vino brand is price.  “If you are going to have a unique selection of wines, you want people to feel that they can step outside their comfort zone without spending too much,” Pat observes.  Pat and Heidi’s goal at the outset was to keep all their selections below $12 a bottle, with most of the wines falling between $6 and $12.  Pat notes that Bueno Cheapo Vino doesn’t draw a hard and fast line on price, since the objective is as much about value as it is about cost.  “We just didn’t think that in this market there was a place to get good to great quality wine at the prices we offer.”  As of this writing, the most expensive wine on the premises was $19.

The Vino

“OK,” you are probably asking, “I like the concept – but how do Pat and Heidi pull it off?”  Darn glad you asked.  The answer, in a nutshell, is that it’s all about timing.  Pat and Heidi work out deals with a variety of distributors who are clearing out their inventory.  In some cases, this may be due to a wine portfolio changing over from one distributor to another, or simply as a result of the old auto lot gambit of “clearing out last year’s models to make way for this year’s.”  You get the idea.  The distributors tip Pat and Heidi off on where the deals are, Pat and Heidi sample the ones they are most interested in, and those that pass their discriminating palettes wind up on the floor of Bueno Cheapo Vino – and hopefully in your glass.

This arrangement points to another aspect of the Bueno Cheapo Vino experience: an ever-changing inventory.  According to Pat, “about 30 percent of our inventory will stay around on a regular basis, while the rest will rotate.  One of our business goals was to always have something new for people to see, talk about, and experience.”

Is it just me, or are you feeling a bit thirsty right about now?