Published October 2004

deVine Wines:
Mill Creek shop’s inventory showcases
bounty from boutique wineries

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

A year and a half ago, deVine Wines was just a notion conjured up by Mike Orlando during an evening of fine wine and conversation with his wife, Laura, and a group of friends.

Snohomish County Business Journal/KIMBERLY HILDEN “We’re now up to 700 wines with a goal to get up to 1,200 or so,” said Mike Orlando, who recently opened deVine Wines with his wife, Laura. Along with the Orlandos, the wine shop located in the new Mill Creek Town Center employs four others part time.

“We’ve always had this lifestyle built around entertaining, but there really wasn’t a place in Mill Creek with mid- to high-tier wines,” said Orlando, a nine-year resident of the city.

So he suggested opening a wine shop, a place where customers could expand their palettes in a warm, inviting atmosphere. His wife agreed.

In April, Orlando’s notion became a reality, and deVine Wines opened to the public, selling wine, gifts and accessories.

Located in the new Mill Creek Town Center, the shop focuses on wines produced from boutique wineries, such as Stevens Winery of Bellevue, Orlando said.

Inside the 1,000-square-foot shop are wines for all tastes and budgets, from value wines priced at less than $12 a bottle to champagne and dessert wines for special celebrations.

There are varietals from across the state as well as from around the globe, including France, Chile, Greece and South Africa, Orlando said.

“We’re now up to 700 wines with a goal to get up to 1,200 or so,” said Orlando, noting that the shop rotates in new labels as space allows and also custom orders wines at clients’ requests.

“We do a lot of reading and a lot of tasting,” Orlando said of selecting wines to sell. “One of the things I don’t want to do is have the shop be (just) my palette.”

To share the experience of wine with its customers, deVine Wines holds wine tastings twice weekly — on Fridays and Saturdays — with the events often pairing wines with the work of local artists. During a recent tasting of Spanish wines, for instance, an artist’s pictorial tour of Spain was on display, Orlando said.

To keep customers updated on deVine Wine events, the shop has developed an electronic newsletter, which it sends to a subscriber list of 500 and growing, Orlando said.

“We’ve drawn a pretty regular core group of people,” he said.

It is a group Orlando expects will increase as construction finishes on Mill Creek Town Center and more people begin to take advantage of the new retail hub.

“We just think this whole development is going to be a (great) impact to the city, and we wanted to be a part of it,” he said.

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