When Vanessa Patel immigrated to the United States 33 years ago, she had never taken a sip of alcohol. Her hometown in India was dry, and she had never had the opportunity to try wine, beer, or spirits. Her brothers, Sunny and Roger Patel, who preceded her in immigrating to the U.S., embraced the entrepreneurial opportunities the country had to offer, starting beverage alcohol retail businesses in Florida. For Patel, coming to America meant joining the new family business. 

It also meant honing a skill she never knew she had. Patel, who started her own store in 2005, remembers those early days of learning about wine in her brother Sunny’s store. Later, when she began attending tastings and events, she and others realized her unusual palate. She says from her first introduction to wine, she could assess the different nuances and levels of quality. Recalling one of her first tastings, she says, “I tried 15-20 different wines side-by-side. Immediately I could tell what was a good wine and what was a good value for the money,” she says. The supplier representative was in shock, Patel says, by the fact that her novice palate was so well developed.

Patel has put that skill to good use in subsequent years, tasting her way through wines from all over the world and bringing her findings back to her loyal clientele in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where she owns and operates A1A Fine Wine & Spirits. Together the Patel siblings own nine stores from Port St. Lucie to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but Vanessa focuses solely on her tiny, 2,100-square-foot store. 

Because of her intense focus on quality offerings at all price points and her commitment to extraordinary and personal customer service, Patel has been named a 2024 Market Watch Leader. 

Early Learnings

When she arrived in the U.S. in the 1990s, Patel dove head-first into learning about her brothers’ retail businesses. “I started with my brother Sunny—that’s where I learned about wine and spirits,” Patel says. She adds that for her, spirits were straightforward, but learning the names and labels for the wines the store carried was a bit more challenging, but also intriguing. 

“He was ordering Wine Spectator,” Patel recalls. “This is a seasonal business in Florida, so when there was time I was reading Spectator. I’d read from the first page to the last page. I [started to compare] what I was reading with what we had in the shop. I’d find a few items, [but perhaps] not the same vintage. But that’s where my curiosity started and was how I got excited about wine.” 

Later, when Patel launched A1A Fine Wine & Spirits, she delved deeper. “I began attending the trade shows, going to the wine tastings, and visiting the wineries,” she says. 

The constant education gave her the confidence and the knowledge to make recommendations to her burgeoning client base. Patel’s store opened in a brand-new shopping complex, so there was no previous owner and no established customer base. In the early days, Patel’s clients in the well-heeled community would typically buy the big name, luxury wines of the moment by the case. Patel would try to mix things up, convincing them to remove one of the 12 bottles from the case and replace it with one of her more obscure selections. “They came back saying ‘you’re right, the one you selected was better,’” Patel recalls. 

Now, Patel says she has earned her patrons’ trust, which she spent years building within the community. Many in Palm Beach Gardens and nearby towns are seasonal residents, and when in town they like to throw parties and get-togethers. “They invite their friends to their home or they go to their friends’ houses, and they want to show off,” Patel says. “They want to offer something different than what the chains and everybody else sells.” The curiosity spreads and more customers come to her on referral from her stalwart supporters, she says. 

Service And Selection

Patel also likes to introduce her customers to a breadth of wines through in-store tastings. While the monthly tastings shut down during the pandemic and have only come back to the store on a seasonal basis, A1A Fine Wine & Spirits has a long history of introducing its clients to the best of the best. “I read about wines in the Spectator, and every year the top 100 list comes out, or every month the magazine [lists] highly rated wines,” Patel says, noting she uses those lists as a guide to introduce her key clients to a broad range of products. Wine tastings are usually conducted by a winery or distributor representative. “My wine tastings are fine, premium, and free,” she says. 

Those efforts over the past two decades have given Patel a loyal customer base, many of whom rely on her as a personal shopper of sorts for wine. They have her cell number and regularly request that she order certain labels, which she happily does. She recalls fulfilling one longtime customer’s order—placed by WhatsApp—despite being in India for a family wedding. “Business doesn’t stop just because we are on vacation,” Patel says, noting she coordinated the purchase from afar then had an employee make the delivery. “I take care [of my customers] and they appreciate it.” 

For all her regular clients, Patel seeks to understand their preferences. “Like a doctor understands their patient, I understand my client’s palate,” she says. 

That level of service is coupled with a “unique” selection, Patel says. A1A Fine Wine & Spirits doesn’t have a specialty focus for wine. Instead, Patel focuses on smaller production wineries all over the world that provide a unique and delicious experience for guests. That can present challenges, she says, because allocations for Florida are often small, and as a single store she gets only a sliver of that volume. Nevertheless, Patel says she’s always seeking new finds from around the world to excite her customer base. 

When it comes to her own taste, Patel loves flavorful wines. “I love the Shiraz blends, I love Cabs, it could be Merlot too. I just like big wines,” she explains. The store caters to a higher-end clientele but its selection runs the pricing gamut, from $10 bottles for everyday drinking up to $2,000-$3,000 labels for the most discerning customers. 

The store also carries spirits and is a certified retailer for Louis XIII Cognac. “We carry all the spirits, but vodka is No. 1,” Patel says. Like other retailers, she’s also seen a surge in demand for spirits-based RTDs. Tequila tops the

list of growth categories within spirits, she says, noting that mezcal is also on the rise. Spirits overall account for about 35% of total sales at A1A Fine Wine & Spirits. The store doesn’t carry beer, so the remaining 65% of sales come from wine. Patel admits her partiality for the latter. “I sell everything and I sell it passionately, but personally I prefer wine,” she says. “That said, I welcome everybody and they spend whatever they want on whatever they like.” 

Boutique Approach

Perhaps because of her passion for and knowledge about wine, the category is thriving in her store. “Here, wine is king,” she says. “At my store I have five aisles—four aisles are wine and one aisle is for spirits.” Patel used to carry beer as well, but she found that carrying a small selection didn’t make sense, as she was always disappointing customers when she didn’t carry their preferred brand. And with the store’s tiny footprint, it wasn’t possible to carry a broad selection, so she decided to eliminate the category altogether. 

Even with just wine and spirits, the space constraints mean brands have to churn sales in order to remain on the selling floor. Patel also is happy to order whatever her customers desire. Patel’s narrow approach is necessary given the nearby competition. Shortly after opening the store in 2005, Total Wine & More moved in just a mile away. Patel also contends with rivalry from Costco, the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits chain, and many others. “That’s why I found a niche—I have wines that [customers] can’t find elsewhere,” she says. “They don’t want ‘regular’ wines, they want unique stuff. This is a boutique wine shop, and with my palate and my passion, I provide them with a unique selection.” 

A1A is decidedly old school in its customer service approach as well. The store offers delivery within a limited area, but there are no online sales. Instead, Patel prefers to have personal relationships with her loyal customers. “[Customers] ask for my cell phone number and I give it to them, and they just text me if they need something,” she says. “They get special service and they love that.”

Most of that service comes from Patel herself. She has only two employees, although in the early days both her brother and her son pitched in on occasion. “When you build up the business from scratch, you have to be there,” she says. “I wanted to make sure it was going to be a successful business. And now, when I’m here, this is my home.”

Not literally, of course. Patel goes home to her husband, who she says relies on her for wine recommendations. Patel’s adult son is now in another line of work, but she describes her store as her second baby. She’s content to continue ensuring it will thrive. “I’m always looking for an opportunity,” she says. “If something comes up, I’m always willing to do it, but this store is my baby. I raised it from the beginning and I am very passionate about it. I raised my son, and this is my other baby.”