We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Blaine Nelson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Blaine, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

We are a veteran owned business, so that aspect is critical to our mission. We strive to share, educate, and mostly have fun with our guests. Wine should not be intimidating or overly confusing, and we seek those who would like to try wine, talk about wine, and talk about shared experiences.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been in the hospitality field all my life. I was Executive Chef for 30 years, travelled the world. Wine has always excited and interested me, and though I learned a lot over the years, it has always bothered me that people feel the need to be “wine snobs”. I would much prefer a more inclusive environment, where nobody feels the fool and everyone can be free to express themselves. Together with my wife Lisa, who also has a lifelong love of wine, and her sister Susan and Susan’s husband Jason, we are the Mayson’s team. Jason just retired from the Army after 30 years as a Command Sergeant Major. We seek to honor not just Jason, but all veterans, as well as first responders, so we offer special discounts for those groups.
We have a Tasting Bar, with a menu of 8 wines that changes every week. Our guests choose 3 from the menu, and we talk about wine. This gives them the opportunity to try wines that are outside of the norm for them, and discover new wines, new countries, new varietals that they perhaps didn’t know about. We also have Wine Class on the first Wednesday of every month, where we focus on a specific varietal. There is no charge for this event. We also have at least one special event every month, which usually several different wines, wineries, and distributors. There is charcuterie, cheeses, and other food to enjoy. We have 3 wine clubs, which are varied in their cost and approach.
We also post Tiktoks periodically about specific wines.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Susan Maynard is in charge of social media. She maintains our website, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. Our website is different than most as we ship to certain states/locales. Her persistence with all social media has brought us to the point where most of our customers are looking for “the next thing” or next week’s Tasting menu, or looking at pictures of our events. This has most definitely brought us closer to our guests, and given us a broader platform for potential gusts.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

We have identified, and connected with, our customers by virtue of the fact that we are a neighborhood shop. As such we need to understand their needs, wants, and how they want to move forward. We talk with them, to be frank. There are no signs in the shop. We would much rather get to know each and every guest, what they like, what they don’t like, their kids names, their experiences. Our customer base started as a small family, and grows every day. We are also open to just about any idea, plan, event, brought to us. And we donate our time and money to appropriate causes.

Contact Info:

• Website: maysonswineshop.com
• Instagram: @maysonswineshop
• Facebook: @maysonswineshop

Image Credits
Blaine nelson