Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nate Riley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nate, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

We like to focus on the wines/regions/varietals that are off the beaten path. So many of the big grocery chains, large liquor stores etc, stock and focus on huge production wines from just a few regions, and don’t give enough attention to the generational wineries, that have amazing price points. We want to sell the small production family wines, and most of the time they are less expensive than the generic bottle you get at the grocery store.

Our industry has a reputation for being pretentious, elitist, and snooty. It doesn’t need to be that way. We just want to be the go to place for an inexpensive bottle of wine, in a casual setting, that helps expose people to all the world has to offer, not just a few grapes from a few regions.

Nate, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been in the wine industry for 15+ years, working in restaurants, distributors, suppliers, and retail. I came from the restaurant industry, and when I didn’t want to work those hours anymore I started as a merchandiser in Colorado, and worked my way up from there. Our whole motto here is to take the pretense out of the industry. Great wine isn’t for the select few that can afford single vineyard Bordeaux. Wine is meant to be fun and bring people together, and that is all we are trying to do here, but also educating people, on what wine is, and where it comes from. We take pride around here exposing folks to something they have never heard of or tried, and it becoming their new favorite wine.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Emily and I have been friends since High School. Through college and adult hood we stayed friends and our spouses and children are friends. During Covid, I reached out to Emily to see if she would be interested in helping me get this insane idea off the ground. She jumped right in and has taken the marketing part of the business and ran with it. Our relationship hasn’t changed much, other than our conversations are more about IG marketing and new wines than whatever else we used to talk about. It helps that we both genially enjoy wine and finding new wines for the store.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We work really hard here to be accepting to everyone that walks in the door. From someone who is brand new to wine, to folks that are experts in the field, we treat each and everyone the same. Our motto is “Be Nice” which is insane to have to prioritize, but it isn’t always easy. However, we feel that most the customers like our laid back attitude, because this industry can be intimidating, and that is the last thing we strive to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marcopoloselections.com
• Instagram: @marcopoloselections
• Facebook: Marco Polo Selections
• Yelp: Marco Polo Selections