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Owner Hopes You Pop In

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By ELIZABETH LEE BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

CARROLLWOOD - It's a wine store where every bottle can be uncorked for round-the-clock taste testing.

At the center counter, customers can sip wine fermented in vineyards from around the world while chewing chunks of crusty bread dipped in a mixture of olive oil and spices.

Chances are a wine guide will be explaining the ins and outs of reds and whites and how to become a wine connoisseur.

"People really come in for the experience," said owner Hendrik Vosloo. "They all just make an occasion of it."

That experience is Cork & Olive, a specialty store that sells four main things - wine, olive oil, spices, and jars of natural sea salt.

The store is considered a big tasting room.

"Too many people are intimidated by a typical wine store," he said. "You see all the bottles, and you can't see the labels. You buy it based on how the label looks and the price range. Why do that?"

All of the more than 100 varieties of wines can be tapped, even the bottles not featured on the sampling table. They even let customers cork an opened bottle and return it if they don't like it once they get home.

Vosloo said he and his wife, Lorette, opened the Carrollwood location at 10019 N. Dale Mabry Highway in May. They wanted to open a business franchise, and the try-before-you-buy wine store seemed like a good fit.

"We were no experts in wine, by any means. We just enjoyed it," he said.

The Carrollwood store is the chain's first franchise locale. Cork & Olive, headquartered on Race Track Road in the Westchase area, opened its first store in 2004 in Clearwater and has 15 locations in the Tampa Bay area.

Many first-time customers come in unsure of what they sell, said Vosloo, who was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He moved to Tampa in 1996.

Some assume the business is a restaurant, a kitchen supply store or even a furniture store.

Vosloo said the focus is on quality, not quantity. That is why they don't sell a lot of wine accessories and trinkets, just bottles of wine and olive oil.

About 65 percent of the store's wines are exclusive to the chain and not available at local retailers, he said.

Most bottles cost between $14 and $16 and come from smaller vineyards from countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Chile, Australia, France, Argentina and the Republic of Moldova.

"Good wine doesn't have to be expensive to taste good," he said.

Aside from wines, the store offers olive oil from four countries. The Spanish olive oil has the traditional full-bodied flavor, and the Moroccan offers a nutty taste, Vosloo said.

Others may prefer the lightness of the Argentinean olive oil and be surprised by the buttery blend in the Tunisian olive oil, he said.

Customers can buy glass bottles to fill with olive oil from a 10-gallon amphora - a two-handled pot that ancient Greeks used to store wine and olive oil.

Spices, natural sea salts, stemware and decanters round out the store's inventory.

The sea salts originate from the Himalayan Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, France, Bolivia, India and Hawaii.

The Alaea is a Hawaiian red sea salt that contains volcanic clay and is rich in iron oxide, and the black variety, Hiwa Kai, has activated charcoal, Vosloo said.

Vosloo said another unique feature is the home party, where managers will take the store experience to someone's house.

The party includes six bottles of wine, a selection of olive oil, dipping spices and sea salts, and wine guides will teach about 20 guests about wine and olive oil.

First-time customer Karen Bauman of Carrollwood loves the taste testing and cork-and-return concept.

"Usually you buy a bottle; if you like it, great. If you don't, you end up cooking with it," Bauman said.

Bauman recently stopped in at the Carrollwood store looking for a wine to give as holiday gifts.

Her shopping trip turned into a miniworkshop by wine guide Doreen Pfeuffer on the varieties of wines and the proper way to sample a sip. Bauman tried three varieties and vowed to bring her husband back to taste more.

Bauman said she was impressed by the store's competitive prices, selection and hands-on customer approach.

"I think it's fabulous," she said. "I've had other people who told me about them. They were very impressed, and I had a few moments today to investigate it."

CORK & OLIVE

ADDRESS: 10019 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Carrollwood

PHONE: (813) 868-3733

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

WEBSITE: www.corkandolive .com

Reporter Elizabeth Lee Brown can be reached at (813) 865-1502 or ebrown@tampatrib.com.

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