ALTON - Dr. Chris Aldridge, an Alton surgeon, and some other investors are doing their part to bring a broad taste of wine to Third Street in Downtown Alton.
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Solera Wines is the new creation at 212 W. Third St. and it is already attracting a solid customer base in just a few days of being open, Aldridge said. A grand opening is set at Solera Wines at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20. See the Riverbender.com Events section for more grand opening details.
The building that houses Solera sat vacant for a while, but it has undergone quite a transformation with Aldridge and partners.
“One of our partners is a builder and he was instrumental in the process,” Aldridge said. “It took a better part of five months to be set up.”
Solera will eventually have a wine list of about 200 different types, Aldridge said. Solera will also offer some beer and food items.
“We will have specialty wines and definitely will have a wide selection,” Aldridge said. “Our list is getting longer all the time. We have added some stuff not easy to find except across the river. We are definitely really enjoying meeting people and getting to know everybody.
"One of the big reasons we did it is we all live in town and wanted a place we could hang out. We hope this will be a big niche for us.”
Aldridge and the group are working with several different distributors and continue to learn more about the craft each day.
“Four of the five partners currently live in Alton,” Aldridge said. “Some of us are Alton natives. We all love Alton and wanted to do this to help where we live. We have been thrilled with how many have visited us so far and the feedback has been very positive. We thought there would be a niche for this because we will offer a wide variety of wines. Previously, you had to go to wineries to get some of these wines.”
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