Decanter Wines at 15830 1st Ave. South is a part wine bar and part wine store, featuring primarily Washington boutique wines, that just opened for business April 2. The grand opening comes next weekend, Friday and Saturday April 15 & 16.

Owned and operated by the Grim family the idea grew out of a love for wine and as a natural outgrowth of an online wine site they created.

Larry Grim said, "It’s hard to say where our interest in wine came from, could be our many trips to Eastern Washington to wine taste in the Yakima Valley. Maybe it was inherited from the Italian side of the family."

The Grims got into the wine business with some friends, 18 months ago by starting an online wine store called www.washingtonwinesonline.com. "We've had a lot of people that contacted us and said 'I really don't want to pay for shipping, is there some place we can pick it up?' so our partners opened a wine bar in La Conner so we decided to open one in this area," Larry said.

A family run operation, Larry (whose back ground is in real estate and construction), his wife Mary (whose background is in commercial insurance for Propel Insurance) and their son Matthew who has also worked in construction but brings restaurant industry experience and online wine sales (with a year at wine.com) to the business. Their daughter Diane Eng has lent her knowledge of the restaurant industry and her experience in traveling to Italy to learn about wines first hand.

They did all the art direction and construction of the business themselves.

Over the last 20 years Mary & Larry spent a few weekends each year visiting wineries in the Yakima Valley. During that time the number of wineries increased and the sweet white wines that attracted them on those first trips gave way to larger, bolder red wines as well.

As wine drinkers and merchants they have their personal favorites. Mary's favorite at the moment is Malbec, while Larry is partial to the Tempranillo.

The Grims can order wine from nearly anywhere (as long as a distributor has it available) and you can buy wine by the bottle or case. You can also buy a bottle of wine in the store and pay a small corking fee for consumption on the premises. Wednesday nights they will offer a $14 bottle of wine (with no corking fees).

They offer wines by the taste, glass, bottle or case, plus a range of wine related accessories and giftware.

The bar also offers food of course with offerings from appetizers like Antipasti or Bruschetta to salads, entrees such as Flatbread Pizza or French Dip Sliders, and desserts like Apple Crisp or Lava Cake. They also offer a range of beers and soft drinks.

Matthew said, "We want to introduce people to the wines of eastern Washington that you can't get at the grocery store to show them there are lots of great wines that aren't the big brand names." Larry expanded on that and said, "That's what were here for to give people an opportunity to learn more about the wines we have. There are 700 wineries in Washington."

The shop will be available for events such as private parties but 10 to 14 days advance notice is required.

When fully stocked Decanter will carry between 150 to 200 different wines from approximately 80 vintners.

Decanter Wines will be open from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm Tuesday through Thursday and 11:00 to 9:00 Friday and Saturday. Sundays they will be open from 11:00am to 8:00 pm. They are closed Mondays.

They plan to extend their hours for the Grand Opening by one hour.

Masquerade Winery from Benton City will be on hand for the Grand Opening.

Those two days will also feature a flat 10% discount on everything in the shop.

You can reach them by phone at 206-243-8751