Bradford “B” Kinney is a self-described wine geek who collects typewriters and enjoys the occasional pun.
Bradford “B” Kinney is a self-described wine geek who collects typewriters and enjoys the occasional pun.
So, when he bought Colonial Wine and Beverage in Chester Township earlier this year, he combined all three in its new name: vino_type.
“It’s a multi-layered pun. I love typewriters and writing about wine tasting,” he said. “I put typewriters around the store.”
Some of his customers share fond — or maybe not so fond — memories of typing term papers on the antique models while other, younger customers are often fascinated by the archaic machines. Kinney said the typewriters add a different twist to his establishment and open up conversations about wine.
“I dig into talking about what they are drinking,” he said.
Kinney’s experience is in retail activity and creating an environment where people are comfortable.
Although he owns a wine store, he said his contribution to the operation is managerial design, so he hired Ken Bement as his curator of wine and a couple of salespeople as hostesses for his “bar nights.”
Those events start around 6 p.m. Fridays and include music or entertainment, as well as a charcuterie of meat, cheese, berries and nuts, Kinney said.
“I think wine is due for a resurgence in popularity,” he said when asked why he invested in 4,000 bottles of wine from far and wide. “Wine is as old as civilization and it’s beautiful.”
Kinney said he was exposed to fine wines as a youth growing up in Hudson.
“My parents have been lovers of wine and entertainers,” he said.
So, he hired on at Colonial Wine and Beverage last summer and dove into the culture.
“I’m fascinated by wine,” he said. “Wine is the intersection of a ton of things — geography, agriculture, history — all those things come together.”
When the opportunity to buy the store arose this year, Kinney jumped on it and reopened in February under the new name, pleased that area wine lovers continued to flock through the doors.
“We inherited a community that already loves this shop. It’s inviting and accessible,” he said.
He and Bement choose wines that are in demand by their local customers and some uncommon brands that will titillate palates.
“We move a lot of Italian wines. Italian wine is pretty different from wines in the rest of the world,” Kinney said, adding the Italian style of winemaking is responsible for that.
“I’m really excited to be able to bring these in,” he said.
Much of his wine is imported from Europe, but South Africa has a growing wine culture.
“We have a lovely light, sweet wine from Africa. They are doing creative things,” he said.
Kinney admires the wine-making process as much as the product itself, hence the similarity between vino_type and phenotype, which is defined as a set of observable features of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genetics with its environment.
“When people say wine is alive, they’re not speaking metaphorically,” he said. “Lots of complicated things happen, so we get to have these simply wonderful things in bottles.”
