Calling all curious Wine lovers
By Alice Crann Good / Photos by Jackson Williams
With a superbly curated selection of 150 or so wine varieties showcased on floor-to-ceiling shelves, an elegant table for tastings, brass chairs with green velvet cushions, and plenteous wine accessories, A Curious Wine Shop is heaven for wine lovers.
“We offer wine from every major wine-growing country, plus wine from California, Oregon and Washington,” said Hilary Towns, who opened the East Hill Pensacola shop in January 2024 with husband John.
“All of our wines are from family-owned vineyards. They are love in a bottle,” she said.
Over the shop’s antique marble counter, light from a chandelier shines on bottles of a lasting love, Raventós I Blanc. The wine hails from a vineyard started in 1947 in Spain; it represents the longest documented winegrowing tradition in Europe owned by a single family.
At the special shop that is a mix of high and low pricing, antique and modern décor and products, you learn many more intriguing facts. The Towns couple relies on their diverse talents and skills to operate their business and educate customers, students and club members about their wines from around the globe.
Hilary Towns’ career path in the wine industry commenced while attending the University of Missouri/Kansas City.
“First, I started working for a fine-dining Italian restaurant with a 10,000-bottle cellar,” she said. “We had staff training every Saturday; the general manager would present three wines each week for us to taste and study. Then, I went to work for the first wine bar in Kansas City in 2006. We served 60 wines by the glass and were the first in town to serve what were then unheard of varietals, including Albarino, Torrontes, Aglianico and Blaufränkisch.”
She said the entire staff was passionate about wine, and she was “a part of a community that was truly immersed in it.”
She took her introductory course through the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2007 at Tavern on the Green in New York.
“I was hooked,” she said.
Since moving to Pensacola in 2011, she worked in sales and in independent restaurants. She earned her Certified Specialist of Wine designation through The Society of Wine Educators in 2014, with the highest score in Florida.
In March of 2020, she initiated her current passion project — the Wine Tasting Boxes that are now central to A Curious Wine Shop — as a private, monthly wine club for wine enthusiasts in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
In 2021, Hilary married John Towns, a professional geologist. The couple has two children — Simon, 16, and Anna, 10.
John Towns works for Cedarville Engineering Group doing environmental remediation projects; he is often involved in soil and water cleanup on area military bases and Superfund sites across the country.
“John and I immediately made a connection in our love of wine and rocks,” Hilary Towns said. “Before we were married, we made our first collaboration box, The Rocks Box Edition, featuring one wine grown in sedimentary soils, one in igneous, and one in metamorphic. The wines included in the box: Petit Bourgeois Savignon Blanc, Tenuta Tascante and Giné Giné.
“The partnership is completely natural and fun personally and professionally,” she said.
The couple generously finger points to each other for their business success and acumen.
“What separates us from other wine stores is it is an educational experience, and all of the wines in our store are curated by Hilary who puts in the effort to research and find accessible wines for people coming to us,” John Towns said.
“And Hilary has endless great ideas.”
Laughing, Hilary Towns added, “Even if they don’t all work out.”
What does work is the couple’s commitment to educating their customers, students and club members with tastings, private classes and monthly Wine Curiosity Club gatherings. While Hilary Towns handles the expert selection and curation of the 150 wines and 38 different types of wine boxes, John Towns teaches about the vineyard regions and soil. They both delve into each vineyard’s culture and history.
For instance, John Towns recently used the shop’s large television to highlight a vineyard and instruct. In the video, he is standing in a Washington vineyard taking students on an educational, geological journey about the three bottles of wine in the Washington Edition box — Poet’s Leap, Hedges “CMS” Red Blend and L’Ecole No. 41 Syrah.
In this session, students learn about the land, climate, history and winemaking in various Washington regions, including Columbia Valley, Walla Walla, Yakima Valley, Red Mountain and Puget Sound.
“Every region is different, and they all have a different soil type,” John Towns explained.
The shop’s name says it all.
“The word curious has many meanings, but mostly it is about people being curious about what’s behind the bottle, where it comes from, who made it and the stories the wine has to tell,” Hilary Towns said.
While A Curious Wine Shop serves many stories with its many wines, which range in price from $15 to $30, it also offers more. Ask about the creative graphic design services to personalize/customize your wine box for a holiday/birthday/anniversary or personal/corporate gift. You can add wording and photos.
And the shop brims with other inventory — including wine accessories such as Vinglacé wine bottle chillers, glassware, napkins, personalized gift baskets, gift cards, antique sommelier accessories from Champagne, France, books about wine, notebooks, chocolates and even hand lotion made locally.
What is the couple’s favorite wine at A Curious Wine Shop?
“Champagne!” the couple shouts in unison.
A Curious wine shop
Where: 1010 N. 12th Ave., Suite 221, front entrance/first floor of old Sacred Heart Building
Hours: 3 to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday
More: Private wine classes available Monday-Saturday at 6 p.m. A monthly subscription to the Wine Curiosity Club is $65 per month, which includes a Regional Tasting Box of three bottles of wine, a tasting sheet, technical information sheets from each winery represented in your box, an invitation to a complementary wine class, plus $15 off all wine classes.
Info: Visit a acuriouswineshop.com or call 850-270-8855.
