Rootstock Wine Merchants features wines from family-owned wineries across the globe

Jennifer Chandler, Memphis Commercial Appeal

May 16, 2022 at 10:00 PM·3 min read

Have you have ever had a wine from Austria, Lebanon or Greece?

There’s a new wine shop in Memphis that features a collection of wines you may not be familiar with, but the owners think will soon become some of your new favorites.

Rootstock Wine Merchants is the latest venture by Scott Smith. It opened Monday at 644 Madison Ave.

The new shop in the Edge District features wines from small-production, family-owned wineries across the globe. It will boast a robust collection of “off-the-beaten track” wines from Italy, France and Australia, as well as the United States.

Smith said this will not be the shop to purchase brand-name wines found on grocery stores shelves. Instead, customers will find a collection of unique and special wines that are not widely offered.

What to expect

General Manager Charlie Purpura, left, and Owner Scott Smith aim to bring affordable and accessible wines from around the world to their new wine boutique in the Edge District, Rootstock Wine Merchants, which has its soft opening Monday, May 16, 2022.

Smith said the 4,000-square-foot shop will be a place for customers to gather and learn.

“We will have a tasting table and comfortable leather seating. It will be not just a store, but also a place to hang out,” Smith said. “We will always have a few wines open for tasting that we are excited about.”

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At Rootstock, a wine purchase will be more than just a transaction, it will be a conversation.

“We are aiming for the experience to be personal," Smith said. "We want people to tell us about things they have had before and liked, and we will suggest wines."

Smith also said wines with “little chemical intervention in the wine process” will be found on the shelves, explaining many mass-produced wines contain a large amount of additives.

A wealth of experience

A new wine boutique in the Edge District, Rootstock Wine Merchants, has its soft opening Monday, May 16, 2022.

Smith is a veteran of the wine industry, having worked in the industry since he was a teenager.

“I started working at Buster’s stocking shelves. I soon discovered that the most exciting stuff was around the wine,” he said.

Smith went on to work for other wine shops and distributors before opening his own wine and liquor store. Rootstock Wine Merchants is his third store. His most recent was Wine Market, a shop on Spottswood in East Memphis that he ran from 2006 to 2019.

When Smith sold Wine Market in late 2019, he planned on starting a wine importing company. Just as he was getting started, the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted those plans.

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After watching the success of boutique wine shops like Woodland Wine Merchant in Nashville and Golden Age near Birmingham, he decided to switch gears again. The development going on in the Edge District was the catalyst to make the new shop happen.

Charlie Purpura is the general manager for the store. While he doesn’t have the decades of experience that Smith does in the industry, he too started in the wine business at an early age — his early 20s.

Purpura said the wine shop will also offer a selection of spirits, as well as local and regional beers.

“There will be a little for everyone here,” he said.

Rootstock has taken over three-fourths of the building that it occupies. The remaining fourth will be home to a wine bar called Three of Cups in the Fall.

“My son, Jake Smith, is opening a wine bar next door to us,” Smith said. “We will both be focused on and featuring a lot of the same wines.”

Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.