“It’s interesting because at one point in time, pre-prohibition, Ohio was one of the largest wine production states,” Gay said. “The first American Viticultural Area was in Missouri, so the Midwest does have this long heritage of winemaking.”
In addition to Joui Wine on East Third Street in Dayton, the region has seen several other new wine bars open in the last two years including Felicity in Centerville and Home Sweet Home - Wine Bar & Gallery in Englewood.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
“I do find it interesting that there’s this hipster wine scene in places like New York and LA, where it’s like wine bars are places to party and they’re appealing to these younger crowds that are taking wine not too seriously,” Gay said.
“It’s not about finding the greatest vintage of Bordeaux,” Gay said. “It’s about dancing on a bar and drinking wine straight out of a bottle.”
Here in Dayton, Gay believes young wine drinkers are starting to embrace that party mentality. For example, guests at Joui Wine can drink sparkling wine out of a Chambong, a champagne flute with a hollowed-out stem.
Simon Gifford, who co-owns the Silver Slipper, a wine bar on Wayne Avenue in Dayton, said they are seeing a lot of their guests coming in for the social aspect. Those guests are looking for a beverage that they can drink all night with their friends.
Others are looking to venture out of their comfort zone and try something they’ve never had before.
“People are more adventurous in terms of asking for an orange wine or seeking out something funkier,” Gifford said. “They’ll ask maybe for something a little bit different than what (the) older generation might be asking for.”
Gifford has seen a younger demographic drinking and enjoying wine at the Silver Slipper.
“What’s interesting about Dayton (is) it’s a very knowledgeable base of people because there’s been some fine wine shops that have done a good job of talking and educating our customer base,” said George Punter, the wine educator and developer of Dorothy Lane Market’s wine shops.
What Dorothy Lane Market is focusing on this coming year is how to educate and engage with the younger wine drinkers because “they’re a little more reticent, it seems like, than some of the older people.”
Getting people interested in wine
Dorothy Lane Market has started hosting a Friday night, happy hour concept once a month where guests can enjoy three pours of beer, wine or a mix of both for $35. The ticket price also includes three small plates. This event was sold out in October and November.
In an attempt to appeal to the younger generation, Dorothy Lane Market is also looking to host a wine and food pairing experience that has an affordable price point and added technology such as a QR code where guests can learn about the tastings through a self-guided tour.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
All Dorothy Lane Market locations continue to host wine tastings on Saturdays. The Oakwood store’s tasting is 2-6 p.m. and the other three stores are noon-4 p.m.
During these tastings, Punter said they like to offer wines that are not typically available in stores via pours.
Joui Wine hosts a competitive blind tasting night on Thursdays where guests get to guess the grape, vintage, region and country of each pour.
“They take the blind tasting super seriously,” Gay said. “They have their notebooks. They have their printouts. They come, they do the blind tasting together, and then they compare notes afterwards.”
She said some participants have started their own tasting groups that meet once a month outside of the wine bar.
The Silver Slipper hosts a wine roulette every Wednesday where guests can spin a wheel for $30 in exchange for a bottle of wine.
“The goal is to get people to feel more adventurous and to be more comfortable with talking about what they want or what they’re looking for — rather than (being) worried about how much it costs or where it’s from,” Gifford said.
His goal is to show people the breadth of wine and encourage guests to try new regions and styles.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Spending an extra $10-$20 on a bottle of wine is worth it
The Silver Slipper sells most of their wine by the glass, but a goal of the owners is to sell more bottles.
They want to show guests the difference between buying a $40 bottle versus a $50 bottle.
In general, Gifford explained that when you pay more for a bottle of wine it means it was made using smaller parcels of fruit. This can result in richer, more concentrated flavors.
“It’s really rewarding once you have that moment of unlocking (a) really good wine,” Gifford said.
He encourages wine drinkers to spend an extra $10-$20 when exploring different wines.
Something The Silver Slipper tries to do each month is feature a winemaker to make wines that are in a higher price bracket more accessible to their guests.
“You always have to meet people where they’re at,” Gifford said.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Building relationships with customers
At Dorothy Lane Market, Punter said they hand-sell a lot of their bottles of wine.
“There’s always somebody (that) should be working the shop,” Punter said. “It’s not like some of your big box stores that you find everything on your own, which is one of the pluses.”
Each store’s wine department takes on the personality of the manager in charge. For example, Punter was the beer and wine manager at the Washington Twp. store for about 16 years. He has a love for European wines, so customers can find a large selection of wines from Germany to Italy and several from the Mediterranean.
“It’s all about trust and building relationships, and that’s what Dorothy Lane does,” Punter said.
A typical customer at Dorothy Lane Market is looking for a bottle of wine for themselves or their family — usually for the evening.
Punter said he will ask his customers a number of questions, so he can recommend the best wine for their specific occasion.
For example, if they like red wine and are having a hearty meat, he might recommend cabs, merlots or Bordeaux. If they’re having salmon, chicken, tuna or pork, he might recommend a pinot.
Punter’s favorite part of working in the wine department is when returning customers come in and ask for recommendations
“That’s the pat on the back that you get that’s unseen,” Punter said. “That makes me want to keep doing this.”
Most of the managers in the wine department at Dorothy Lane Market are Certified Specialists of Wine. This is a certification similar to a sommelier with a focus on retail.
Credit: Submitted Photo
Credit: Submitted Photo
Food and wine go hand in hand
“Wine is definitely meant for food,” Gay said. “We’ve got a great food scene right now — it’s probably the best it’s ever been — and so, if we have such a great food scene, we need a good wine scene to kind of enhance that experience."
When she’s pairing wine with food, she always keeps a list of guidelines in mind. For example, the wine and the food should essentially be the same weight. A big, bold wine should not be served with a light, delicate dish and vice versa.
Other tips and tricks Gay suggested include:
- Acidic wines cut the richness of different foods. Bright, acidic white wines pair well with cheese-based sauces, butters or creams.
- Depending how the wine is aged, it should match the cooking process of the food. Oak-aged cabernets pair well with foods that are grilled.
- Wine that will be paired with a dessert should typically be sweeter than the dessert.
“We have all of these rules that we keep in mind, theoretically speaking, when trying to craft these pairings, but sometimes it’s really fun just to get really experimental and to try things,” Gay said. “Sometimes things work and you don’t even really know why.”
Credit: Contributed Photo
Credit: Contributed Photo
Wine dinners have become more common
Joui Wine has been a part of five wine dinners this year in the Dayton region. This is a normal amount for Gay, but she said wine dinners have become more common.
“I think when people tighten their budget, they are less willing to pay for normal, every day luxuries and are more willing to splurge on experiences,” Gay said.
Wine dinners are a great way for chefs and sommeliers to collaborate with others in the hospitality industry.
Joui Wine recently collaborated with Adelsheim Vineyard and Chef Zach Morgan of Little Fish Brewing Company for a multi-course wine dinner.
“You get to share ideas. You get to learn from one another. You get to bring them and their talents to a different city sometimes or to at least a different setting, which is really interesting,” Gay said.
She thinks part of the reason why there has been an increase in wine dinners is because business is down for many bars and restaurants in the Dayton region.
“We’re all having to try and get a little creative as to how we can continue to make ends meet, and a lot of that is through events,” Gay said.
Wine dinners are something that restaurants and bars find easy to execute because it’s kind of in their “normal repertoire.”
“It’s something they can do with the tools and resources they already have on hand and create something really special to kind of help boost sales in some capacity,” Gay said.
Uncertainty in the wine industry
In the meantime, the wine industry as a whole hasn’t been doing so great with tariffs as a point of contention.
“The point of the tariffs is to promote domestic production and stop importing things, but when you work with a product like wine, which is an expression of the place that it comes from, it is counterproductive,” Gay said.
Dorothy Lane Market works with a distributor from France where prices of some Champagnes have increased more than 10%.
“In reality, a lot of the wine buyers and importers and wholesalers, knowing that there was the potential for the tariffs to begin with, stocked up before the tariffs actually hit,” Punter said. “We’re still working off some of the old costs.”
He added that tariffs are being felt more on the higher end products because it’s hard to stock up on those bottles.
Overall, Dorothy Lane Market isn’t seeing a big dip in wine consumption. Punter described sales as pretty even.
Gifford had similar things to say with his sales also being consistent.
“Dayton is a little bit of a bubble,” Gifford said. “People like to eat out here and like to have a good time here. That’s been really good for small businesses like ours.”
Gifford has friends in New York that are planning to open a wine bar.
“I don’t see things not continuing to expand, but at the same time, the level of uncertainty is high and the prices are going to get higher. And that’s when the question is like, well, how much are people willing to pay?”
That’s the issue he is having with wanting to introduce their customers to as big of a breadth of wine as possible.
At the Silver Slipper, their prices are guided by what feels comfortable when reading the menu.
“You just find ways to absorb those costs and try and figure it out a different way,” Gifford said. “I don’t want to ever have to charge over $15 for a glass of wine without it coming with some sort of added value...”
Gay, who is also the wine director at Sueño, shared that she increased the cost of a few of their wines by about a dollar a glass.
“$12 to $13 for a glass of wine doesn’t feel like a huge increase, but when everything is getting more and more expensive and your people are trying to budget, typically hospitality, nights out, drinking, eating out, those are the first things to go,” Gay said.
The general public is drinking less than they used to — especially Gen Z, Punter said.
“We’re just trying to essentially read the room and give the people what they want, but that doesn’t seem to necessarily be wine focused,” Gay said.
“The goal is for the wine sales to be the most prevalent, but I think cocktails keep the lights on,” Gifford said.
Dayton’s wine scene
Despite the struggles in the wine industry, Gay and Gifford described Dayton’s wine scene as “impressive,” “exciting” and “growing.”
“I think that people are getting more adventurous, and I think that’s why they’re gravitating towards places that have a more unique lineup and have wines that tell a different story,” Gay said.
People are looking for wines that are produced organically with respect to the environment, Gay said.
They’re wanting to try orange wines, funky wines and cloudy wines, Gifford said.
They’re also looking for nonalcoholic wine options, Punter said.
“Dayton’s kind of like a party town in a way, and people are super social here,“ Gifford said. ”I think that we’ve been fortunate enough, even though we’re a smaller population, to be able to still support businesses through their beverage programs.
Those in the Dayton region typically prefer sweet wines.
“People will come in and ask for a sweet red, which in the world of fine wines is not really a thing that exists, but it’s kind of like that gateway drug if all you’re used to drinking is cocktails that have some kind of simple syrups or all of these kind of sugars,” Gay said.
When people begin exploring the world of wine, they typically start with sweet wines and move to white wines before trying reds.
“There’s a time and a place for everything,” Gay said. “As your palate develops, you kind of have a vested interest in different things as you’re exploring the entire world of wine.”
A love for wine
The world of wine is appealing to a diverse group of people because it involves different fields of study.
When asked what Punter likes about wine culture, he said, “There’s history. There’s geography, and then there’s the wine itself. If you know something about those areas, you can understand this, the wine part, much better.”
“Wine is a reflection of a place, so it tells a story of geography which inextricably is linked with history and politics,” Gay said.
Winemaking also involves agriculture and chemistry. It can even be described as a form of art.
“A Chardonnay grape is a Chardonnay grape, but depending on where it’s grown and who makes it, they can be so vastly different from one another,” Gay said. “And that’s the hand of the artist, which is the winemaker.”
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