Vin Bin News Articles
Below are news articles that have featured The Vin Bin, with excerpts & complete articles.
Chamber kudos: Good people make great businesses
By Mary Wenzel/ Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006
MARLBOROUGH - New Horizons and The Vin Bin shared kudos with Larry LaChance and the Assabet River Rail Trail in Hudson and Marlborough as nearly 300 people offered congratulations to the winners at the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Awards Recognition Dinner... More
Digging the Wine
Thursday, November 30, 2006
MARLBOROUGH - Former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps was in Marlborough last week, shopping at the Vin Bin wine shop with his sister, Diane, of Sudbury... More
Power grapes: Boston hosts 16th annual Wine Expo
By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Here's a happening that's really a corker.
The 16th annual Wine Expo, the nation's largest consumer wine event, takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Seaport World Trade Center and Seaport Hotel in Boston. The expo offers wine tastings, gourmet food and seminars - mixing entertainment and education. It's all designed to be in good taste... More
Sold it through the grapevine: Marlborough store specializes
in wine and cheese
By Bob Tremblay / News Business Writer
Monday, December 13, 2004
MARLBOROUGH -- The Vin Bin is not a receptacle loaded with memorabilia dedicated to muscle-bound actor Vin Diesel, sports broadcaster Vin Scully or former Celtic forward Vin Baker... More
The long arm of wine: Key to Lombardi's success was a class taken at Boston University
By Charlie Breitrose / Daily News Staff
Friday, November 25, 2005
MARLBOROUGH -- These days, Rick Lombardi welcomes customers to his small but homey wine shop in downtown Marlborough, The Vin Bin, but just a couple years ago he was commuting to Boston where he worked as a spokesman for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department... More
Wine purveyors sort out buy-direct law
Written by Ken St. Onge
Monday, 03 April 2006
Over a veto by Gov. Mitt Romney, lawmakers in Feb. passed a sweeping change of Bay State wine laws that allows vineyards producing fewer than 30,000 gallons a year to bypass distributors and ship directly to customers... More
In Good Spirits - Wine and Beer is all in Fashion
By Charlene Arsenault
The Food Book 2006
Cars, houses, clothes and music aren’t all that is subject to trends. What we drink has its style phases, too. You see it in the ads; the push for a Narragansett comeback, the vodka drink craze, 1,001 different martini recipes, Fetzer during the holidays... More
Full Text Vin Bin Articles
Chamber kudos: Good people make great businesses
By Mary Wenzel/ Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006
MARLBOROUGH New Horizons and The Vin Bin shared kudos with Larry LaChance and the Assabet River Rail Trail in Hudson and Marlborough as nearly 300 people offered congratulations to the winners at the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce Annual
Business Awards Recognition Dinner.
The festivities were held at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites with city and state officials joining with Chamber members and guests to recognize the outstanding local
businesses.
"Chamber membership truly does matter," said Susanne Morreale Leeber, president and
CEO of the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce. "By joining together,
business people have accomplished and can still accomplish what no one person could do
alone."
The Small Business of the Year award went to The Vin Bin, a specialty wine, cheese
and gourmet foods store that opened in September 2004.
"I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce for their support and for choosing The Vin
Bin as Small Business of the Year," said Rick Lombardi, who with his wife, Julie, owns
the store at 27 South Bolton St. in Marlborough Customers at The Vin Bin can choose
from a selection of nearly 1,000 different wines and a cheese case that features more than 150 cheeses.
"It takes a large number of people to make a small business run," said Lombardi as he
thanked his family and staff as well as a “courageous banker."
As proprietors of The Vin Bin, the Lombardis have embraced dozens of charitable
events that further improve the quality of life for local residents.
"In just the past year, The Vin Bin has conducted or supported more than 40 fundraisers
for causes such as the Evening of Giving, Marlborough and Southborough schools
and the Area Arts Alliance, to name a few," said Morreale Leeber.
Digging the Wine
Thursday, November 30, 2006
MARLBOROUGH
Former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps was in Marlborough last week,
shopping at the Vin Bin wine shop with his sister, Diane, of Sudbury.
Rick Lombardi, coowner of the Vin Bin writes in his weekly enewsletter
that Phelps bought three bottles: a 2003 St. Emilion Chateau Franc LaPorte, a Simi Alexander Cabernet and a 2000 Mondavi Oakville Cabernet.
He also notes that Phelps will go down in history for coaching the Fighting Irish to an
upset victory over the UCLA Bruins in 1974, "ending the longest winning streak in
modern sports."
He'll also have us know that the some time ESPN commentator played Bacchus, the god
of wine, in a Notre Dame performance of "Orpheus and the Underworld" last spring.
Power grapes: Boston hosts 16th annual Wine Expo
By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
H
ere's a happening that's really a corker.
The 16th annual Wine Expo, the nation's largest consumer wine event, takes place
Saturday and Sunday at the Seaport World Trade Center and Seaport Hotel in Boston.
The expo offers wine tastings, gourmet food and seminars mixing
entertainment and education. It's all designed to be in good taste.
More than 19,000 guests are expected to attend the event, which features the Grand
Tasting. This showcases more than 440 international and domestic wineries from 12
countries who'll be pouring more than 1,800 different wines.
Countries represented include Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Georgia, Germany,
Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and the United States.
Winemakers and winery principles will be on hand to offer advice on pricing, serving and
selecting the right vintage.
"It's a great chance to taste a lot of different wines in one location without having to
travel too far," said Rick Lombardi, coowner of the Vin Bin in Marlborough. As one of
the expo's retail partners, the wine store is one of the businesses selling tickets to the
event. Certain wines at the expo can also be purchased through the retailer, ordering by
fax or at the store.
"A lot of wineries bring their best wines so you can taste the finest wines being offered,"
Lombardi continued. "It's also a good place to discover what wines are going to be
showcased within the next year. A lot of new wineries are opening and they're bringing
new wines to taste and introducing people to different varietals they may not have tried
before."
The Vin Bin sold all of its 100 tickets last year during its initial association with the expo.
So far this year, it has sold 50 tickets, and has several dozen still available.
Single day tickets for the Grand Tasting cost $85 at the door, but at the Vin Bin they cost
$70. Online tickets also cost $70 but come with a $2.50 handling fee. Two day
tickets can also be purchased. Seminar prices vary. Tickets can be purchased via the Web at www.wineexpoboston.com or by calling 877-946-3976.
Sold it through the grapevine: Marlborough store
specializes in wine and cheese
By Bob Tremblay / News Business Writer
Monday, December 13, 2004
MARLBOROUGH The Vin Bin is not a receptacle loaded with memorabilia dedicated
to muscle bound actor Vin Diesel, sports broadcaster Vin Scully or former Celtic forward
Vin Baker.
"Vin," in this case, is the French word for wine. It just receives an Americanized
pronunciation to rhyme with "bin."
The Vin Bin is actually a wine and cheese specialty store that opened in Marlborough in
September. For the record, it has nothing to do with Diesel, Scully or Baker, though they
are more than welcome to shop at the establishment.
The emporium's name came about after "we kicked around a few ideas," according to
Rick Lombardi, who owns the store with his wife, Julie. "I wanted to call it Bin 27 since
we're located at 27 South Bolton St. but there's a wine called Bin 27 and the name is
trademarked."
No such trademark existed for Vin Bin. "Something about that clicked," says Lombardi.
"It was short, easy to remember and just quirky enough."
Housed in the confines of a former hardware store, the Vin Bin
is situated near Coral Seafood and Starbucks at the intersection of
routes 85 and 20.
A longtime connoisseur, Lombardi says he decided to open a wine and cheese specialty
store because "I wanted to do something I'd enjoy doing every day," he says. "I didn't
want to run a package store. That's a supermarket for liquor. You buy it and leave. I
wanted to run a store that was friendly, comfortable and a pleasure for everyone to walk
into. I wanted it to be like an extension of my home. I wanted people to be visitors rather
than customers."
Lombardi's interest in wine began when he was 18 and working at a large supermarket in Worcester. "That was a neat thing to do," he recalls. "There were rows and rows of wines that came from everywhere. I was interested in discovering where they came from, how they were produced and how they were unique. As I developed a palate for wine in my 20s and 30s, I developed a passion for wine.
"There's a mystery of what makes wine so special," Lombardi continues. "It's not like
Pepsi or Coke that's made in million gallon vats and every bottle tastes the same. Wine,
because it's affected by many factors such as the weather, is different every year."
To help unravel wine's mystery and make choosing the good wine easier is one of the
goals of the Vin Bin.
As to how to choose a good wine, Lombardi's advice is simple. "If you like it, it's a good
wine," he says. It's the Vin Bin's job to offer that good wine.
"You don't need to know a lot about wine and you don't need to spend a lot of money,"
says Lombardi. "We can provide the expertise.
That's what we're here for. We taste a lot of wine and we know if a wine is a good wine.
They can come in here and we can talk all day about it."
Just don't expect Lombardi and his staff to foist their personal opinions on you. "There
are 50,000 to 60,000 different wines made every year. One wine won't satisfy every
taste," he says. "My favorite wine? It changes with every meal."
What customers are looking for when they enter the Vin Bin is wine they can't buy at the
supermarket, Lombardi says. "They're looking for something that's special," he says.
Such as Chinon, a cabernet franc from France's Loire Valley. The store sold four cases in
six weeks. Ask a liquor store for Chinon and you'll likely receive a blank stare, according
to Lombardi.
Wine matters because it "completes the meal," says the Marlborough resident. "Our
ancestors knew what they were doing when they made it a meal staple.... Wine is like
groceries. You buy produce, fruit, meats and fish and you should buy wine, too. You
don't need great quantities. It adds to the enjoyment of the meal."
The Vin Bin sells 800 different wines from every wine producing country including
Eastern Europe. It also sells 130 different beers and ales, many hailing from New
England. Micro brews are particularly popular, according to Lombardi. "Bud and Miller
don't sell," he says, "but beers like Smutty nose Old Brown Dog Ale are big sellers."
In addition to wine, the Vin Bin specializes in cheese, selling 100 different kinds. These
cheeses are shipped weekly from Europe and small New England farms. The selection
changes weekly.
As with wine, customers are looking for cheeses they can't buy at supermarkets,
Lombardi says. "They like trying different things," he says. Such as Sareanah, a cow's
milk cheese from the Three Sisters Creamery in California's Joaquin Valley. A 20 pound
wheel sold out in a day.
The Vin Bin also sells specialty food products such as sauces, spreads, chocolates,
crackers, olives, imported deli meats, pate, Russian caviar, foie gras and bread. The latter is baked daily by the Pain D'Avignon Bakery of Hyannis. The Vin Bin carries more than a dozen different styles of rustic bread daily.
It also offers wine and cheese accessories such as books, cutting boards, coasters, crystal wine glasses, corkscrews and cheese knives. In addition, the store sells gift baskets custom made by Julie Lombardi. The Lombardi children Christina, Michael, Joseph and Alana also help around the store.
In addition, the Vin Bin can special order any cheese or wine and deliver orders within Marlborough and a contiguous town for free. Fees apply for out of area deliveries.
Lombardi notes that the growing strength of the euro vs. the dollar is bound to raise the price of wine and cheese imported from Europe next year. As a result, expect to see more domestic wine and cheese in the marketplace in 2005. "Now's a good time to stock up on European wines," he says. The beneficiaries of the strengthening euro will be U.S., South American and Australian wines, he says.
Business at the Vin Bin, meanwhile, has been "spectacular, beyond our wildest dreams," says Lombardi. "We doubled sales from September to October and doubled them again from October to November."
Offering a quality product at fair prices and offering products that no other store in the area offers are behind the success, says Lombardi.
"We sample wine and cheese here every day," he says. "Our motto is never buy before you try." Good service is also crucial. Before turning his passion for wine into a business, Lombardi worked in the communications field, first in the newspaper arena where he was managing editor of the Marlborough Enterprise, currently owned by Community Newspaper Co. The last 10 years he worked in Boston for various state agencies as a press spokesman.
Lombardi's wine and cheese "education" includes completing the cheese course at Boston University's Culinary Arts School where he studied under Ihsan Gurdahl, the owner of Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, and completing intermediate and advanced study in the
Wine and Spirit Education Trust program at Boston University. He also interned at the Cheese Shop in Concord under owner Peter Lovis.
"My goal is to create a shop like that," says Lombardi. "They are the major leagues of wine and cheese stores. It's their depth of knowledge that makes them elite."
The Vin Bin provides a free wine tasting every Friday night at 5 and is also scheduling monthly wine seminars.
"We want to make wine drinking fun," says Lombardi. "We want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We don't want it to be snobby. We're about having a good time with wine."
The long arm of wine: Key to Lombardi's success was a class taken at Boston University
By Charlie Breitrose / Daily News Staff
Friday, November 25, 2005
MARLBOROUGH These days, Rick Lombardi welcomes customers to his
small but homey wine shop in downtown Marlborough, The Vin Bin, but
just a couple years ago he was commuting to Boston where he worked
as a spokesman for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department.
The transition took two years of work and study in the evenings
and on weekends, but one of the key pieces of the puzzle, Lombardi
said, was taking a class about wine at Boston University's Elizabeth
Bishop Wine Resource Center.
Although he worked in the media business for 20 years, Lombardi
wanted to make a change. He first got a taste for wine when he
worked in the liquor section of a Worcester grocery store in his
late teens, back when the drinking age was 18.
"I had always wanted to do something in wine open a store or
work in the wine industry," Lombardi said. "I read a lot about wine
on my own, but I felt like if I really wanted to be serious about
this education I needed a formal level of education."
After looking around at adult courses offered in the area, and
culinary schools, Lombardi decided to enroll in the course at BU. He
looked at courses offered by Johnson & Wales University in
Providence, but because he worked in Boston at the time, attending
the once per week lectures at BU was easy for Lombardi.
The course covers the history of how wine evolved and a little
bit of marketing and business, but mostly provides a foundation in
wine education.
"There is lots of reading the book, lots of outside reading and,
of course, there is tasting," Lombardi said. "We would talk about a
(wine producing) region, taste wine from the region and talk about
how they taste different and find out why they are different."
People who work in wine shops, or work for distributors are the
main audience for BU's wine course, said Bill Nesto, one of the
instructors in the program.
"Rick is a great example of one type of people we serve," Nesto
said. "We are known to educate those people going into the industry
who want to work for retailer or distributor, even journalists come
to us.
"I can think of several people working in family wine shops who
are studying here in order to play a bigger role in the family wine
shop."
Plenty of people work in wine and spirit retail without a formal
education, but Nesto said to really have a solid and objective
knowledge of wine, people must learn how to taste wine and where the
wine comes from, including the climate and even type of soil in
which the grapes are grown.
"An important part of the class is developing an understanding
of, and a vocabulary of, tasting," Nesto said. "It is an important
skill, how to communicate what you are tasting."
The wine program at BU has changed a bit since Lombardi attended
classes. He took the intermediate and advanced classes. Now, Nesto
said, the school added a fourth course.
"We have moved away from an off the shelf wine education program
developed in Great Britain," Nesto said. "We are now offering our
own book that we wrote for the level one class."
Opening the wine shop with his wife Julie took more than just
taking a course, Lombardi said.
"It took a lot of homework. It was the most homework, the most
preparation, I have ever done on anything," Lombardi said. "I did
research every single day for two years."
He now has six employees, most of whom have training in wine.
With the knowledge he picked up in the wine program, and a course he
took on cheese, Lombardi said he feels confident he can help any
customer.
"When someone comes in describing what the want with their meal,
I draw on my expertise and can decipher what they are asking for
based on what I have been taught and lead them in the right
direction," Lombardi said.
Wine purveyors sort out buy direct law
Written by Ken St. Onge
Monday, 03 April 2006
Over a veto by Gov. Mitt Romney, lawmakers in Feb. passed a sweeping change of Bay
State wine laws that allows vineyards producing fewer than 30,000 gallons a year to
bypass distributors and ship directly to customers.
But larger vineyards and those that had previously used a wholesaler are still required to
do so. That has prompted some, including Romney and a number of vineyard trade
groups, to denounce the law as a move to protect Bay State wine wholesalers. Robert
Buckley, director of the trade group for MA wine wholesalers, did not return repeated
phone messages seeking comment.
The changes come on the heels of a May Supreme Court decision that overturned laws in
MI and NY that banned out of state vineyards from shipping directly to customers but
allowed in state vineyards to do so. As a result, laws in 24 states needed to be changed,
including MA.
Devil in the details
While the changes may in theory help vineyards by opening untapped markets,
regulations associated with selling direct still discourage local vineyards from doing so,
says Rich Pelletier of Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton. Nashoba Valley is one of the
state’s largest, producing 26,000 gallons of wine a year from grapes, peaches and other
fruits, the equivalent of 98,000 bottles.
Complying with the state’s rules for shipping are so cumbersome that Pelletier has little
interest in expanding his direct sales business. Those rules include a $100 permit to
register as a seller, paying $100 for each truck that will transport the wine and the
paperwork associated with filing monthly tax documents and invoices with the state.
Pelletier sold 200 bottles through the mail last year — roughly 0.2 percent of the
vineyard’s production. FedEX is the only company that has the infrastructure in place to
ship and verify that purchasers are over 21, he says. Between freight charges, packaging
and verification, it costs $8.34 to ship a bottle of wine, a huge disincentive for sellers and
buyers.
But not everyone is so down about the changes. Another provision in the new law, which
allows restaurant customers to take home their unfinished bottles of wine, is drawing
praise from wine store owners and restaurant operators. Richard M. Lombardi, owner of
The Vin Bin, a Marlboro wine and cheese shop, says the new law may increase retail
wine sales because customers will be more conscious of wine when they take it home. If
the wine strikes their fancy, consumers will be more likely to bring label in and try
similar vintages.
Sales will increase as people gain familiarity with wines, adds Frank J. Anzalotti,
executive director of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association.
Lombardi says competition from direct sales won’t affect his business. "We provide a lot
of service to our customers, such as advice or wine tastings.
That’s something you won’t be able to do online," he says.
Chris Liazos, owner of the Webster House restaurant in Worcester, says the new law was
a good idea because it discourages people from overindulging before the ride home. "If a
couple buys a bottle of wine and drinks only half, they often drink the other half just to
finish it off. This is a way to eliminate that temptation." Plus, customers are more likely
to buy a bottle than a glass if they can take the rest home with them, he says.
And for wine enthusiasts, the new law is a welcome change, says Greg Mitrakas, a
Marlboro real estate lawyer and longtime wine collector. It will be easier now for these
aficionados to get their hands on harder to find, out of state wines. "Anything that helps
consumers is a good thing," he says.
Worcester Magazine
In Good Spirits
Wine and Beer is all in Fashion
By Charlene Arsenault
The Food Book 2006
Cars, houses, clothes and music aren’t all that is subject to trends. What we drink has its
style phases, too. You see it in the ads; the push for a Narragansett come back, the vodka drink craze, 1,001 different martini recipes, Fetzer during the
holidays. Some of them stick and some don’t. Is anyone else out there ashamed to order a Zima? Did that guy actually just get a Tom Collins?
A good buzz will never go out. Beer and wine certainly always stays in fashion, but the
choice for your buzz may change. Here, we talk to two experts in the trade to find out
what’s hot in the world of grapes, hops and barley.
Rick Lombardi opened The Vin Bin at 27 South Bolton St. in Marlboro in
September, 2004. With more than 800 different wines, they offer selections
from every wine producing country. The store also boasts 130 beers and ales, 100
cheeses, specialty food products and fresh baked bread.
Echoed by many experts in the food and wine industry. Lombardi has noticed a
strong shift in the consumer’s attitude and knowledge of wine and beer. Thanks to
cooking shows and infiltration into the pop culture market, consumers are
becoming savvier about the drink. It’s bad news for the Budweisers, Coors and Riunitis
of the world, but great news for the niche market brewers and wineries.
For the first time, studies are confirming that wine is outselling beer in the under 30 segment; the fastest growing consumer of wine is between the ages of 24 and 30. “Wine is no longer the drink of older, snobby, middle aged men and women,” says Lombardi. “It’s the drink of the masses. Thousands of years ago, wine was always part of every meal in every culture. It had taken on a different aspect in this country 100 years ago.”
The beer and wine makers are noticing.
More affordable, quality wines are popping up. The Australian line Little Penguin makes
a strong showing in many liquor stores these days — “a great wine for the
price,” you’ll hear many say.
Lombardi maintains that wine is simply made much better than it was 10 years ago,
giving more value for the dollar. In addition to Little Penguin, Lombardi says one of The
Vin Bin’s best sellers is Pascual Toso. From Argentina, the company makes a malbec,
cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc — all under $10, and all delicious.
“They represent a much better quality than similar priced wines from other parts of the
world,” says Lombardi. “The unofficial motto from South America is ‘twice the wine for
half the money.’ There are always good values in South American wine. It’s a fraction of
what you’d pay for a wine from California or France.”
Although American wines still sell more than any other at The Vin Bin, Lombardi finds
that shoppers are searching for value wines from Spain, New Zealand and South Africa,
and are becoming more conscious of Old World wines from Italy, Spain and France.
But again, they’re seeking values. “They are expressing joy over a gem they can
have for less than $10,” says Lombardi. “That’s part of the beauty of wine discovering
that one that is inexpensive, but delicious.”
Don’t be afraid to belch
And let us not forget the beer. Ryan Maloney, who owns Julio’s, says
the heavily hopped beers are flying out of the store right now. Brands such as
Dogfish Head are big. And the beer community has always considered Belgian
beers as some of the best in the world.
“People are definitely stepping up and experimenting more and finding out what
beer can be,” he adds.
Lombardi agrees. Since The Vin Bin specializes in microbrews, his clientele isn’t
as inclined to pick up a case of Miller Lite. “I call the Buds of the world lawnmower
beers,” says Lombardi. “Although I do enjoy a Bud myself, they are for after mowing the
lawn.”
Among The Vin Bin’s fastest selling brands are Lagunitas, a heavily hopped
vibrant IPA from California. “That’s similar to many of the beers being introduced,”
says Lombardi. “It mimics the wine world in many ways. Their flavors are much more
complex.”
Two of his personal favorites are Sherwood Forest from Marlboro and
Berkshire Brewery from the Berkshires. The Sherwood beer is microbrew ale with
deep flavors, similar to a Sam Adams style. The Berkshires beer is also rich, deep colored
beer, which is a little on the sweet side; and only sold in 22 ouncers.
The wheat, lighter beers such as Bavaria and Hefeweizen, pack the shelves as summer
comes, too.
“Summer is the time of year that breweries are sending out their lighter beers,”
says Lombardi. “All of the microbrews sell. It depends on who comes in, so they rotate
in popularity. But the national brands do sell less.”
