Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Watson.
Hi Chris, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My wife, Katy, and I moved to Aledo just over 5 years ago from Fort Worth. In January of 2021, our household was hit with Covid. I tested positive first and was sent to the upstairs guest bedroom to quarantine away from my wife and two daughters (8 and 4 years old). Katy and I had talked numerous times about starting a business in addition to my career as an electricity broker/consultant so while I was in our guest bedroom, I started putting a list of ideas together on what that could be. One thing that stood out to me was that Aledo was growing like crazy and it was mostly young families moving here but the only place to buy wine was at CVS or at a gas station. I knew there must be a huge demand for a wine store but had no experience nor expertise in how to open or run one. So, I reached out to JR Clark (We knew JR from the 17 years he was at Central Market running the wine department. Everyone in Fort Worth knows JR as the “Wine guy of Fort Worth”) on Facebook and messaged him saying that I was thinking about opening a wine store but would love to call and pick his brain about margins, volumes, etc. He wrote me back and I called him the same day from my quarantine bedroom. He was so nice, knowledgeable, and genuinely excited during the call that at the end of it I asked him that if we moved forward would he want to come on board and run it for us and he said Yes. So, after a couple of days in our guest bedroom, my wife tested positive for Covid and told me to come back downstairs and start helping her with our kids so that first evening I told her I think we might be opening a wine store in Aledo. Shortly after this we reached out to our friends Colby and Jennifer Hale and told them we were going to open a wine store and asked if they wanted to partner with us on it. They said yes and the rest is history.
In August of 2021, we signed a lease on our space that has incredible road frontage on the main road in Aledo, FM 1187. We ordered custom racks from California, had countless distributor meetings with JR, and opened our doors in mid-October. Since opening our doors the community has been nothing less than incredible in supporting us. I feel we fill a very special gap in the market. We are a wine boutique first and foremost with wines from 45 different varietals, 20 countries, and 55 sub-regions. We carry some of your well-known labels but focus on small production wines from around the world that way over-deliver on quality and price. Second, we have a wine club with 3 different levels that pick up wine hand-selected by JR every single month along with incredibly fun quarterly wine club parties. Lastly, we have wine classes at the store. These are amazing and so much fun. We have smaller and more informal Wine Class Wednesday every week where people come in and learn about 4 different wines and then we have our big monthly class which features food and 6 different wines that we discuss. These big classes have ranged from our first class which was the Yellowstone Premier tasting class where we paired 6 different wines with 6 characters from Yellowstone, to VinoCo de Mayo which we had on May 5th and featured all Mexican wines.
Currently, approximately 30% of our business comes from Fort Worth. We do a large amount of private orders, event orders, and cellar consultations. We are excited about the growth Fort Worth, Aledo, and Weatherford are seeing right now. We are excited about the future, what it has in store for us, and the amazing wines we are going to be able to bring to our customers.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The support from the community has been amazing and it has been a fairly smooth road. We are still learning and getting our feet under us. When starting a new business people see all the fun things, the events, the wine club parties, the hard-to-find wines. What they don’t see is the setting up payroll, inventory tracking and growing your inventory, bookkeeping, etc., etc. At the end of the day, I feel if you find a need and you hire good people the rest tends to work itself out.
Funny side story struggle along the way. JR came down with Covid about 3 days before our first big wine class which was the Yellowstone Premier Class. With 45 people paid and confirmed over two days there was no way we could cancel the class. So, I decided to dress up like Rip, my wife Katy dressed up like Beth and I asked JR to email me all of his talking points on each wine. We were sad he couldn’t make the class but our customers were incredibly understanding and we all had a great time.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I feel this is a great spot to get information on JR and his 20+ year career in the wine industry. I will get this for you and email it to you.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success for us if providing a store that is welcoming and warm to all of our customers. Where you can not only come into buy a bottle or case of wine but come in and learn about wine while not being intimidated or feel dumb for not knowing something. Success is also highlighting amazing wines from around the world that don’t get a chance to shine as much as some that have big marketing budgets or well-known brand names.
Pricing:
- Retail Bottles range from $9 – $200+
- Wine Club levels: $60, $120, $240
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vinocowines.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinocowines/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VinoCoWines/
Image Credits
Chris Watson
Katy Watson
JR Clark
Jennifer Hale
Colby Hale
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