Bring on The Clown Monthly tastings just one way Blue Hill store brings wine to community

It’s the second Thursday in February and Christina Deetjen is pulling corks from six bottles of wine that she plans to offer at a public wine tasting. The first wine is a dark pink rosato that smells slightly of violets. The next is a Muller-Thurgau that is fresh and tangy. There is one more white and three reds – a cabernet sauvignon, a zinfandel and a Valpolicella.

“My job is to introduce the community to wines it may not have experienced before,” said Deetjen. “It gives everyone a chance to come into our store and taste wines from around the world.”

Deetjen is the manager and wine guide at The Clown, a wine and antique store that opened on Main Street in Blue Hill last April. It is the third of its kind – the original one opened in Stonington in 1996 and the largest opened in Portland in 1999 – to be launched by entrepreneurs Kyle Wolfe and Martin Kolk. Unlike The Clown in Stonington, which is seasonal, the branch in Blue Hill is a year-round venture, and the monthly wine tastings are a way to bring new customers in the door and to nudge regular customers to try new wines.

“We always taste a variety of whites and a variety of reds,” said Zoe Alexis Scott, who runs the Stonington store in the summer and helps out with the Blue Hill store in the winter. “It’s a way to taste wines without risks. It’s not like when you buy a bottle of wine when you go out to dinner and you’re invested for the whole evening.”

At this month’s tasting, which occurred on a frigid night, a steady stream of takers showed up and sniffed, swirled, sipped and smiled. They arrived in the same spirit as if they were at the general store or the local coffee shop, and they stood around a central pouring table and, in neighborly tones, offered their responses and insights to the wines.

“This one is too sweet, too unsettled,” one man said of the Muller-Thurgau.

“It has that Riesling nose, but without a twist,” added Scott.

“We have a wine cellar, so it’s fun to come and taste here,” said Diane Bianco, a caterer in town. “You can’t always find a fine selection of wines from all over the world and especially the great wines from Italy. I entertain a lot, so what I love about coming in here is choosing something to go with each course.”

Steve Barrett, a representative from Pine State Trading Company, an Augusta-based wine and beer distributor, stopped by for the tasting after work. He, too, noted the collection of Italian wine, a specialty at the store, but also applauded the carefulness with which the wine is chosen. An inexpensive bottle of wine – say $6-8 – is the best $6-8 bottle of wine you can find.

“Everything in here has been tasted and approved or it wouldn’t be on the shelf,” said Barrett.

It helps, said Barrett, that Deetjen and Scott are outgoing and helpful saleswomen. They want to assist in finding a cheap or an expensive bottle of wine – as long as it suits the taste of the customer.

That approach is at the very heart of the business, say its owners.

“My favorite reaction to people who want me to recommend wine is: A good wine is what tastes good to you,” said Wolfe. “It doesn’t have to be complicated or different. Wines are friendly. They’re fun and should be something you have fun with. It shouldn’t be a worry. We try to make it enjoyable.”

Wolfe and her husband, who is from Holland, clearly enjoy good wine, and if it comes from Italy, all the better. Their devotion to one of the world’s largest wine-producing countries (Italy and France jockey for the lead each year) began in 1995 in Tuscany, where they bought a farmhouse called Tramonti on 200 acres, three of which contained a small vineyard with primarily Sangiovese grapes. In a few years, the couple expanded into a vineyard that produces two labels: Innocento, a Sangiovese, and Tramonti Chianti Classico. Four out of five years, the latter was rated as “very good to excellent” and given two out of three glasses (stars) by Gambero Rosso, the bible of great Italian wine.

Their Tuscan home is also used for culinary, enological and art workshops.

Wolfe and Kolk, whose own labels are featured among the 1,200 at the Clown in Portland and about half that many in Blue Hill, hope to bring those same tastes to America. Their particular expertise is reflected in the fact that a third of the wines they sell come from Italy.

“There’s an intimidation factor in the United States when it comes to wine,” said Wolfe, a former banker. “I grew up in Indiana where the drink, the beverage, was milk. The beverage in wine-drinking countries in Europe is wine. It’s not seen as an alcoholic beverage but as the beverage that accompanies the meal. That’s a concept that is growing in the U.S., but it still has a long way to go.”

In addition to the wine, Wolfe also shows local art and has imported European antiques, kitchen items and a few food products such as olive oil, some of which comes from the 600 olive trees at Tramonti. This month’s art show in Blue Hill is done by students from a local school. But professional artists are also featured.

“I wanted to put a lot of what I liked under one roof,” said Wolfe, who goes on regular buying trips to France, Italy and Holland. “The idea was to have wine, antiques and art together.”

Back at the wine tasting, customers were discussing black cherry aromas, and the creamy, velvety character of the reds. When one taster didn’t quite relate to a flavor, Deetjen steered him toward another. When someone asked for a suggestion for that night’s dinner – salmon dusted with nuts and hot spices – Deetjen suggested a French white wine.

“I want people to walk away feeling that this is a friendly place to come to. I want them to walk away knowing more about wine and knowing what they like,” said Deetjen.

The Clown, its owners say, is named after a small Parisian bistro where the decor plays up the image of the whimsical figure. The name, obviously, makes no reference to the products sold in the store, but it fully embodies the lightheartedness and delight the owners and workers take in selling wine. The new store in Blue Hill is a testament to the Wolfe-Kolk belief in making wine central to life and food and community.