Winezilla. The name is a humorous attempt to right what can be the beastly reputation that comes with wine and wine connoisseurs. For Winezilla owner Ed Bosse that means making wine approachable, selling and teaching about wines that are affordable but well-made and free of extra chemicals, preservatives and processing.
Bosse opened
Winezilla on Woodward Avenue and 9 Mile in downtown Ferndale about three weeks ago - a follow-up to Simply Wine, a business he founded and sold a few years back. Simply Wine was a "Best Of" winner in several metro Detroit publications .
Now reborn as Winezilla, Ed boasts that "some of our old customers are coming back. Ferndale is a cool town. People go out of their way to support a local business and to tell other people about it."
Winezilla is a wine store first, and second a place to taste wine and learn about how it's made, how it's different from mass-produced wines and more. Nearly every wine is priced around $10 or under. Formal tastings are held on Saturday afternoons, but customers can try what they're thinking of buying at anytime.
"People get to see how good inexpensive wine is…I use words like fresh and clean, and they see what I mean after they taste it," he says. "A lot of small production and boutique wine is expensive…over-oaked or over-exerted. There are a lot of cool, small production wineries that make great, clean healthy wines and that's a lot of what we sell."
"In France or Italy I've had bottles of wine that are less than $10 and not full of chemicals and taste so much better than expensive wines," says Bosse, a former schoolteacher who has traveled many places drinking the wine made in fine wineries and by back yard operations.
"Wine has been handcuffed by this reputation of who supposedly drinks wine, and who buys it," he says.
Bosse wants to tap into all parts of the wine market: including women and young people.
"There's a whole group of people that drink wine on an every-day basis. Young people who might be termed beer-drinkers are starting to be more graceful and entertaining at home. You've got a whole new generation entertaining in a more European way and wine is is part of that," he says.
"The name Winezilla is kind of silly and maybe it goes too far," he says. "But it's a way of saying, 'Look guys this is for you. Wine can be fun.' "
Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Ed Bosse, owner, Winezilla
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