Supermarket pairs with restaurant to offer wine tasting

KALAMAZOO -- Supermarkets aren't generally in the business of offering wine tastings, but times are changing now that they have hundreds of wines to sell.

D&W Fresh Markets recently approached Charlie Foster's restaurant to throw a joint wine tasting "25 Wines for $25" at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the restaurant, located at 211 E. Water St., in downtown Kalamazoo.

"We want to continue to educate customers about wines," said Bill Michaels, manager of the D&W Fresh Market at 2103 Parkview Ave. "With this, we're trying to choose wines that are reasonably priced, those that can be everyday wines for customers."

Sit-down wine tastings have been successfully done in Grand Haven and Rockford by D&W Fresh Market stores in those cities, and those tasting gave Brandon Walsh, former assistant director of the Parkview store, and D&W wine specialist Penny Ross the idea to try something similar in Kalamazoo.

Their version at Charlie Foster's will be a walk-around event. Five tables will offer samples of five wines. Each table will carry a theme such as "Not Your Usual Whites" or "Wines From Below the Equator."

Each D&W Fresh Market store now carries about 450 different wines and has an area called Bin 35 that features 35 wines costing less than $10.

The wine tasting is being offered in part to spread the word about the supermarket chain's wine deals -- 10 percent discounts on purchases of six bottles or more and periodic discounts of 15 percent and 20 percent on six bottles or more. Customers can also order bottles of wine and receive those discounts.

At the wine tasting, Charlie Foster's will provide a buffet table to introduce patrons to Chef Allen Worman's style. He'll showcase his Caprice salad, Cajun-crusted calamari, Moroccan-spiced scallops, Thai chili shrimp, rosemary-grilled mussels, tempura salmon, portabella-mushroom skewers and tomato-and-goat-cheese fondue.