We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Ferris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.

Ben, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

For a long time I have felt that there were inherent problems in the consumer facing wine business. For one, it can be very pretentious and that is a major problem for consumers just learning about wine. There is a big world of wine out there and It can be very intimidating even if people aren’t talking down to you when you have questions. I also got annoyed by upselling consumers to increase guest check averages. I wanted people to be able to follow their curiosities and make choices for themselves without outside influence. The technology we use at taste allows us to provide a self serve environment that allows guests to choose between 48 different wines from all over the world. We are a counter service restaurant so there are no servers trying to convince you what to choose or upsell you. All of the power is in the hands of the consumer. In regards to the deli, I knew I wanted food at taste but did not want a full service kitchen. Charcuterie and wine go perfectly together so we went with a gourmet deli and have choose your own charcuterie menus so people can try numerous charcuterie options and pair them with wines as they choose. This is what led to the creation of Taste Wine Bar and Market!

Ben, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Ben Ferris and like many people who get into the wine business it was through waiting tables that I caught the wine bug. I was living in Charleston South Carolina and working in fine dining and my love of wine hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a great mentor who pointed me westward and so I went to school at Cal State Fresno to become a Winemaker which I accomplished and worked in many different amazing wineries in two different states and on two different continents. There came a point when I burned out on wine production and decided to move back to my home town of Atlanta Georgia where I moved into wine sales and got a first hand look at the other side of the business. After a few years in sales a lightbulb went off and taste was born.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Winemaking is a very hard job that is extremely labor intensive especially during harvest. Harvest is when all the grapes come to winery for processing and it not uncommon to work 16 hour days for periods of up to 60 days straight and sometimes even longer. I would regularly lose 25 pounds during each harvest.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was making wine in Seattle and decided and I wanted to move back home to Atlanta. There was no where for me to make wine in the city and I had to pivot to sales.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tastewinebarandmarket.com
• Instagram: taste.winebar
• Facebook: Taste Wine Bar and Market