The Gracious Grape aims to create warm environment to enjoy and learn about wine

The Gracious Grape, located at 106 Prairie Park St. in Yelm, aims to create a warm setting for local residents to gather, enjoy a glass of wine and learn about different types of vino made in the Pacific Northwest and across the globe.

Co-owners Mike and Teri Melone opened the doors to The Gracious Grape on Wednesday, Oct. 15, and said business has been “good, steady and growing” in the two months the establishment has been operating.

Mike told the Nisqually Valley News on Thursday, Dec. 11, that he was involved in the restaurant and club industry earlier in his life but had no desire to do another operation similar to those two fields. Additionally, he changed career fields and was teaching golf.

“One day, I was walking by here with my dog and saw that it was vacant. I decided maybe I could do this again, as long as I didn’t have to manage anybody. That was really the grueling part of restaurants, food and beverages, dealing with a large staff,” Mike said. “We figured that if we wanted this, hopefully someone else would like it as well.”

According to Teri, “the dream” wasn’t to seek out a location to open up a location to sell and serve wine. Initially, the married couple was just looking for a local place to enjoy wine, but found they had to travel and leave the community to do that.

“When you’re going 30-40 minutes to an hour and you have to drive back, you can’t fully enjoy the evening because you need to be safe,” Teri said. “We were sure that there’s other people who felt the same. We thought it through, and when this place came open, it seemed like the right place at the right time.”

So far, Mike said the business has been steadily building up a customer base. He said, typically, customers include folks who are looking to enjoy a drink before going to the movies or out to dinner. The Gracious Grape has also seen customers who enjoy hanging out at the bar to enjoy the full experience. One of the biggest hits at the new business has been the wine flights it offers in order to allow customers to experience a wide variety of wines.

“We have wines that, really, just taste good,” Mike said. “The nice part about wine is you start to learn about wine and then you realize how little you know about it. It’s kind of a lifetime endeavor, and it’s nice to introduce people to different types of wines and tastes.”

Teri added that The Gracious Grape also features a bottle shop with different wines available from “predominantly” the PNW, but also a smaller selection of wines from all over the world.

“From the average person like me, you can get a red. You can get a white. You can get a rose. You can get bubbles. You can get whatever you’re interested in, which is nice,” Teri said. “Sometimes, a wine totally changes with what you eat. That’s the cool part. We do have some snack and charcuterie things. It’s not a full restaurant, but it gives people the chance to taste something different when you pair wine with food.”

According to Mike, The Gracious Grape aims to “feature more approachable wines” inside of the business. Additionally, the location is working with Laterus, a winery from Snohomish, as its feature winery.

“We want to expose the community to more far reaching wines. We go for real small production wines, and so not the wines you generally see in the supermarkets or at Costco. It’s more of the small producers. Washington is doing some amazing things with wine, and we want to give exposure to those people,” Mike said. “I had never even heard of Laterus when we first got the wines in, and they’re so good. It’s been really fun letting the public get to know that.”

Teri and Mike are each hopeful to see community members come into The Gracious Grape to give the new business a chance and to take advantage of the knowledge of wine presented within the location.

“I’m not going to say I’m a wine expert — that’s his side of the story — but I think that there’s people who may not be as knowledgeable and want to try and learn about wine. That’s what I’m finding fun about it,” Teri said. “There’s a whole bunch to try. You don’t have to like everything but you might be surprised. That’s the nice, experimental part for people looking for something to do and try.”

Mike added, “This really is an inviting place to come and learn. You shouldn’t be intimidated by the whole wine aspect because there’s a wine for everyone. We get a lot of ‘I hate chardonnay’ and then they try chiblet, which is French chardonnay, and they love it. So that’s fun.”