LOCAL BUSINESS
The red-brick facade of Wineaux Wine Tasting Bar beckons visitors with its old world charm. Modeled on architecture of cities like New Orleans and San Jose, Puerto Rico, the building — located at 314 Hutchison — evokes the balmy appeal of a coastal city where people come to sip wine and relax as friends.
“It’s French Quarter inspired because I love New Orleans,” Peggy Jones, owner of Wineaux, said. “It’s one of my favorite places on the face of this earth.”
Jones opened the Wineaux store-front in December, but within months, she and her son, Rutherford Griffin, recognized the potential to offer more, converting to a full wine bar in early March. Jones wanted to create a space where locals and university students could come together over bottles of wine and homemade tapenade, where students could read or play board games. She envisioned a place where people could split a bottle of hard-tofind wine while listening to live music.
“In here, it’s a good space,” Jones said. “Professionals, grad students, masters students, or even just people who want to quietly study or read a book — we want people that come in to feel like they’re in a living room, but with barrels.”
Wineax specializes in Old World, small-batch wines that aren’t stocked in typical stores. “These are from the smaller wineries,” Jones said. “The wineries that are not producing enough to keep up with the mass sales. They really specialize in what they do well. Some of them are only producing 500, 1000 bottles a year.”
As a connoisseur of truly fine wine, Jones felt it was important to stock only the highest quality vintages. “With the Old World wines, their practices are biodynamic, and for the most part organic,” Jones said. “You find less of these wineries using pesticides and other chemicals. We try not to have wines that you’re just going to buy at HEB or Target or WalMart.”
A trained sommelier, Jones’ son Rutherford Griffin, agreed. “We try to make sure that the wines we offer here would be very difficult to find within about two hundred miles,” he said.
In addition to supplying organic and vegan wines, Wineaux makes an effort to supply women-owned wines and wines that come from cooperative vineyards.
“A cooperative wine is where the farmers in the local area cooperate together,” Jones said. “They grow the grapes, tend the farms and then they produce the wines as a community.”
“And share in the profit,” Griffin added.
With the wine bar underway, Jones expanded to include events and live music. Every Wednesday starting at 3 p.m. is Wineaux Wednesday, where visitors can taste a wine before they buy it. Wineaux Wednesday offers a weekly rotation of five selected wines.
Jones has also started a wine walk called “Lore, Legends and Landmarks,” a tour showcasing San Marcos’ ancient lore and modern legends — everything from bank robbers, historic sites and ghost sightings. Participants can purchase wine and beer in a sealed container before leaving the bar. Then once the tour is underway, customers can open their containers for a unique sip-and-stroll experience.
The next wine walk is June 1 starting at 7:30 p.m. To register, visit txwineaux.com/events. Tickets are $25 a piece.
Wineaux offers wine by the flight, glass or by the bottle. To view the full menu or to learn more about upcoming events, visit the website at txwineaux.com.
Wineaux offers a selection of wines from France, Italy and other European and North American appellations. The wine bar also specializes in gifts and wine accessories.
