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Erin Keene, owner of Second Bottle Wine Shop (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Erin Keene sans mask (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Second Bottle Wine Shop is located at 324 N. 27th St. in Church Hill. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Second Bottle Wine Shop is open daily. (Photo courtesy Second Bottle Wine Shop)
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The shop offers a variety of bottles, with a focus on limited-intervention wines.
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When it's safe to do so, Keene plans to host winemakers and tastings at the shop. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Tinned fish, chocolates, crackers and other snacks are also available. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
“Honestly, if 2020 hadn’t been so low, then it wouldn’t have birthed all of this,” owner Erin Keene says as she stands inside the newly debuted Second Bottle Wine & Snack Shop at 324 N. 27th Street in Church Hill.
Keene, 30, was managing private events for the Michelin-starred French restaurant Le Bernardin in midtown Manhattan when the pandemic struck. The decade-long city dweller, a veteran of New York's bustling hospitality industry with stints at restaurants including Prune, found herself unemployed and uncertain of her next move.
Keene discovered the future space of her shop when passing through Richmond last year.
“I felt a different heartbeat here than I had seen previously, and I was looking at [Richmond] differently,” she says.
Shortly after, Keene's longtime friend and former Cornell softball teammate Alyson Intihar, purchased the building.
“This was something I had always dreamt of doing down the line, down the line, and then all of a sudden, you’re sitting there for months looking out a window and you start thinking, ‘OK, maybe this is down the line,’ ” Keene says of bringing the concept to life.
The bright and airy corner shop features a little bit of everything: natural wines from sustainably grown grapes, Virginia vintners such as Lightwell Survey Wines, more unique offerings — a Nathan Kendall wine from New York's Finger Lakes region available for the first time in the commonwealth — and bottles that Keene has personally “grown attached to.”
“Everything is very intentional,” says the Pennsylvania native of the shop's selections, noting that she doesn’t want to pigeonhole herself by calling it a natural wine shop. “There are plenty of delicious wines that aren’t quite at the natural level, but I do want to highlight wines that are made sustainably, organically, and those farmed responsibly.”
Also on store shelves are curated pairings, wine duos meant for holidays or other celebratory occasions, along with sparkling vintages, everyday sippers, $20-and-under selections, and a wall dedicated to tinned fish and accoutrements.
“That’s my way of highlighting fun things I’m extra excited about that maybe you wouldn't have grabbed initially, or because it’s slightly discounted [you take] the opportunity to try something,” she says.
Brown paper tags dangle from bottles with short descriptions and suggested food pairings. Keene’s hope is that the guidance opens up dialogue with customers.
“That same vocabulary is something I would like to share with people or help them develop if they want,” Keene says. “If someone isn’t comfortable approaching me, I'm writing these tags that are meant to be conversational.”
In the future, Keene envisions hosting farmers and winemakers and allowing them to share their stories in the shop, as well as tastings. For now, she's excited to simply open the doors, share her growing passion and get acquainted with her new home.
"My love of wine does stem from food and how it brings the table to life or changes the atmosphere of dinner or a meal," she says, adding that the shop's name is an ode to the uncorking of a second bottle, an unspoken invitation to a memorable evening. "Wine contributes to any occasion or a regular night — you can build a night around wine."
Currently, Second Bottle is offering online ordering and pickup, in addition to in-store shopping Keene says she plans to partner with Richmond-based bike delivery service Quickness RVA in the future.
Second Bottle Wine & Snack Shop is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
