Feel free to ask John Petralia’s advice when you shop for wine at the Wine Barrel. Since 2006, when his mother, Mary Gides, bought the long-standing wine store at 6649 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, his “fair knowledge” of wine has burgeoned.
His wine education began at an early age. “I was brought up in a household where the family made wine,” he said, “and we drank it responsibly from the time we were young, just like they do in many other countries.”
Suggesting a wine barely scratches the surface of Petralia’s expertise. Stick around for his discourse on grape cultivation, the history of wine, and a lesson in how to read wine labels.
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“Man alters plants by selective breeding, altering different types of grape to go with food popular in the area,” he said. “You wouldn’t raise grapes that tasted terrible with the food you eat every day.
“If the area is on a seacoast, you’ll find that the local wines go well with seafood. If you’re in area where cattle are raised primarily, you’re going to find they produce bold, heavy red wines – like Argentina is known for beef and malbec grapes that make dark red wines.
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He stocks a broad range of wines, from a $4.49 bottle of Crane Lake, a “drinkable blanc if you’re not too fussy,” up to $100 bottles of fine cabernets and Bordeaux. “I have a couple nice wines that go great with seafood – one from the island of Sardinia, and one from Adriatic coast of Italy,” proving his point about grape cultivation.
“They’re wines,” he said, “you won’t find in grocery stores.”
Petralia greatly appreciates for his regular customers, “people who feel they want to support small local businesses.” They continued frequenting his shop even when construction on Mayfield Road inconvenienced them. And he’s gratified to be offering them an alternative to the big-box store’s wine department.
By the way, his No. 1 rule for pairing wine with food is easy to remember: “Drink what you like.” As for wine labels, he said that “the more specific the location, the better the wine.”