Not For Snobs At All

Syrah, leather tack and bacon cheese: This is the stuff that Diamond Ridge Market is made of.

Wine is for snobs, right? I mean, who could ever imagine wine mixing with Western apparel, for instance? That popular idea absolutely exploded last fall in Sonoma, California, when I arrived at the lodge where I stayed during a visit. The first thing I saw was a young man in blue jeans and cowboy boots approaching the front desk with a partially drunk, re-corked bottle sticking out of his hip pocket where the stereotypical can of Skoal would usually be.

Back in Springfield, I recently found a similar cultural intersection. Upon first walking into Diamond Ridge Market, PFI’s new gourmet food, specialty cheese and wine shop located just south of the main store, I smelled the leather and tack, took in all the western gear, and realized that somehow, it all works.

That’s the point of owner Randy Little’s latest brainchild. Wine is for everybody. He gets that.He also understands that you don’t stay in business for 32 years by maintaining the status quo. That and his own love for wine led to the development of PFI Family Wines. He calls it a brand extension, a means of making PFI more accessible to a wider range of people.

To help make it work, Little hired wine specialist Tyler Jolley, who designed the layout of the retail floor and wrote back-label descriptors based on barrel samples of the still-developing wines. He selected all of the other wines offered for sale as well.

What Jolley has created is a true tasting-room experience with a selection of many wines not available anywhere else in 417-land. At Diamond Ridge, wines are open for tasting very hour of every day the market is open. “We don’t care how much they sample,” says Little. “You’ve got to have fun. We don’t care if you want to try 25.”

PFI Family Wines take on two forms. The first is a line of Missouri wines made by St. James Winery from locally grown grapes and other fruit. These range in price from $12.99 to $26.99 and feature western themed names such as Wild Horse Ridge, Spotted Pony and Horseshoe Hills.

The rest of the PFI brand wines are produced in Santa Rosa, California, and include such popular varietals as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, Chardonnay, and syrah. All are of excellent quality and, at $13.99 to $34.99, can more than hold their own against many higher priced counterparts.

The California gold-label PFI syrah ($34.99) is a beautiful wine, dark and brooding with blueberry fruit, spice and a haunting aroma that speaks of the quality of the grapes and their vinification. Each wine that I tasted was impressive. All were well-balanced and approachable, with character that translated into excellent value for the price.

Approximately 500 wines are currently in the store, ranging from less than $10 to more than $300. Special orders are welcome, and if a wine is available, PFI staff says it will find it.

The market also offers more than 100 specialty cheeses and cheese products. Unusual flavors such as bacon cheese are produced in Ohio under the PFI label. Cheeses may be sampled in the store by themselves, with crackers and dips, or to accompany wines at the tasting bar.

Gourmet jams, jellies, pickles and more bear the PFI label in the gourmet foods section. Just a quick perusal of the shelves reveals bread and butter pickles, apple butter (including a no-sugar-added version), pickled eggs, salsa, barbecue sauce and a line of coffees.

Finally, for all the wine-loving cowboys and cowgirls on your gift list, choose gift baskets, corkscrews, glassware, bottle stoppers and many other accessories.

Wanna Go?

Diamond Ridge Market at PFI Western Store
2816 S. Ingram Mill Rd., Springfield
417-889-2660
pfiwestern.com