Raising a wine glass to independence

If small winery operations are the backbone of Oregon's $1.4 billion wine industry, small independent wine stores are at least part of the skeleton -- despite increasing consolidation among wine distributors and the might of retail powerhouses such as Fred Meyer and Costco.

The first of these independent shops appeared in 1989, about two decades after winegrowing first took root in the northern Willamette Valley, when Matthew Elsen and Bob Liner opened Liner & Elsen Wine Merchants in Portland.

While small wine shops may be going under elsewhere, they are a vital presence throughout Portland and its suburban markets, said Elsen, who with Liner has gone on to found Galaxy Wine Co., a distributor.

"We're in one of the most interesting and competitive markets in the country," he said. "Small wine shops and independent dealers are a critical part of that."

"Small wine stores are a huge part of our business," he said. "They are small businesses selling wine, and we're a small business making very small lots of very particular wines. It's a perfect relationship in many ways.

Here is a look at several small wine retailers in the southwest suburbs. Wine Xing When Eric Bean cashed out of the biotech industry in 2000, he and his wife, Linda, decided to pursue what had become a growing passion -- wine.Repeated trips to the top spots of the wine world only scratched the itch. Then, when they moved to Oregon in 2005, a light went on after they couldn't find anything quite like the wine shop they'd frequented in San Diego.

So they decided to jump into the business full time by opening Wine Xing (pronounced " wine crossing") in Wilsonville.

"The whole idea is to provide a nonthreatening environment for people to come and explore wine," Eric Bean said, "where people can ask dumb questions about wine and get a straightforward answer."

The Beans, like other small wine-shop owners, can't compete directly against big-box retailers, which rely on volume to trim their margins.

So to keep costs low, Wine Xing opened in a small industrial park near Argyle Square in north Wilsonville. By forgoing traditional retail space, the Beans shaved 40 percent in overhead costs.

A second strategy, one that other small shops follow, is stocking shelves with labels not found at bigger outlets.

"There are tens of thousands of wines out there, and the ones we seek out represent good value," Bean said. "We provide almost 800 wines from all over the world and I taste each one of them before we'll stock it."