The industrial area of Napa that used to house the Kaiser Steel pipe-manufacturing plant was packed with crazed shoppers yesterday for the ceremonious sunrise opening of a brand-new local outpost of everyone’s favorite discount superstore: a 157,000-square-foot Costco warehouse at 280 Riversound Way. It will be Napa County’s first.
If we are to trust the giddy journalists and witnesses at the scene, this was the most exciting thing to happen to Napa since the Judgment of Paris. “Years of anticipation turned to reality on Friday morning as Costco opened the doors to its Napa store,” the Napa Valley Register reports. A photojournalist for the paper captured some pretty amazing shots of the morning rush.
Here’s another account from a Press Democrat reporter who had allegedly never stepped foot inside a Costco before yesterday:
A long line of shoppers, both local and from neighboring counties, had lined up for the opening. Famed UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, special guest for the occasion, cut the ribbon at 7:30 a.m. and people rolled in, led by whiskey enthusiasts who had been camping outside for three days to get their hands on low-priced special-edition bottles.
Located just off Highway 221 at the southwest corner of Kaiser Road and Riversound Way, the 157,417-square-foot warehouse boasts all the traditional Costco favorites — $1.50 hot dogs and Kirkland toilet paper — as well as an extensive wine and liquor selection.
It has a bakery, food court, pharmacy, optical department, hearing aid center, tire center and gas station, and is part of a 154-acre redevelopment of the former Napa Pipe plant along the Napa River.
“I’ve been waiting for years,” Napa resident Scott Simpson said as he stood in line with his cart.
Napa’s mayor, Scott Sedgley, tells the PD: “It’s exciting. The most asked question over the last year has not been when homes are going to be built or a highway project completed. It’s been — when will Costco open?”
And of course, this new Costco being situated in the capital of wine country, its wine section is unmatched, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper reports that Selman Medina, a “Bay Area Costco legend” who for more than a decade has been “commuting from Napa to work the floor of the wine section at the Novato Costco, widely believed to have the best wine section of any Costco in California,” is now bringing all this A game back home.
“Napa’s new Costco may have the nation’s best wine section, thanks to this employee,” the Chronicle reports. More from the story:
When Medina heard a Costco was opening in his hometown of over 35 years, he put in for a transfer. The wine selection at the new Napa store rivals Novato’s, said [Bay Area Costco wine buyer Mark Kalkbrenner].
“He built [the Novato] program up and really put wine stewards on the map,” said Kalkbrenner. “People love him and they come to see him. He’s extremely knowledgeable, charismatic and friendly. He’ll probably pull a lot of his members from Novato to Napa.”
In many ways, Medina’s job is that of a sommelier. He speaks with customers and recommends wines that he thinks they’ll enjoy. But he’s a welcome antidote to the flashy and pretentious sommelier stereotype. Dressed in khakis and an off-yellow, buttoned-down shirt with his “Selman” name tag pinned at the middle, he radiates approachability and appears the perfect mentor for the everyday Costco customer, largely because he is one. (It’s where he buys all of his wine, he said.) Madina is more than happy to talk to customers about spirits, too — rare bourbons were the big draw at the Napa opening, for which dozens of people camped out for days — but it’s clear his passion lies with wine. “What I like about wine is connection,” he said. “Wine is a perk. A reward.”
Oh and BTW, while we’re Napa wine-snobbing, here’s some more big industry news: The federal government just approved a new subregion for Napa wines for the first time in 13 years, the Chronicle reports.
These subregions are called “American Viticultural Areas,” or AVAs — and for connoisseurs, they can signal a lot about where a wine comes from and what went into it. This new one, a 230-acre zone in the foothills of Howell Mountain between St. Helena and Calistoga, is named “Crystal Springs.” Here’s some more insider baseball from the Chronicle:
It took the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) over four years to approve the petition for the new AVA, which Steven Burgess, the proposal’s author, said he’s been working on since 2005. The last AVA approved within Napa Valley was Coombsville in 2011.
Until now, wineries in this area have had to label their wines with the Napa Valley AVA, which encompasses over 120,000 acres. “If a wine bottled just says ‘Napa Valley’ on it, you have no idea what it’s going to taste and feel like,” said Burgess, the former owner of Burgess Cellars. “It could be red fruit, black fruit, soft tannins, brutal tannins — you have no idea.”
