Local wine aficionado and Broad Ripple Gazette columnist Jill Ditmire has poured new life into a historic local business district. She became owner of the Massachusetts Avenue Wine Shoppe at 878 Massachusetts Avenue on August 25th.

The existing business owners brought Ditmire in to conduct marketing, wine tasting events and to educate consumers about wine to improve their sales. When the store was on the verge of closing in mid-July, she coordinated efforts in purchasing wine, craft (micro) beers, delicatessen meats and cheeses from suppliers. Seizing a golden opportunity to utilize her wine expertise and revive the business, Ditmire found some local investors and created a new marketing strategy. With store manager Liz Swanson and a dedicated group of employees, their oenophile enterprise enhances many new and prospering businesses on Massachusetts Avenue.

"There's nothing like it at all downtown, not really anywhere in Indiana. It's not wine you're going to find anywhere else, including some wines and craft beers which otherwise might be found only in some of downtown's finest restaurants," Ditmire emphasized. Discriminating wine lovers can find selections from Argentina, Australia, California, Chile, France, Indiana, Italy, New Zealand, Oregon, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and other regions. Store employee Amy Doll said, "We hand-pick all the wines and we agree on what we market. Jill makes the final choices and does the ordering."

Wines are available in various price ranges. "There are over 200 wines in our shop from around the world and 75 wines under 15 dollars. We taste every wine before it goes on our wall of wine so we can give people honest answers to their questions," Ditmire stated. "Everybody tastes wine differently. You taste wine to know what you like and what you don't like. You can learn as much or as little as you like, but good wines are the ones that you like. A Cabernet Sauvignon from France will taste differently from one in California, Chile or from Indiana," she added.

Customers can also sample meats and cheeses in the store's intimate environment. "We sell European meats and cheeses by weight. In other words, we hand-slice everything according to the customers desires with the exception of real Buffalo Mozzarella, which is in a tub to keep it fresh," Ditmire explained. Among the deli meats are Crespone, Hot Capicola Citterio, Pancetta and Serrano. Deli cheeses include Asiago, Blueberry Stilton, Gouda, Manchego and Pecorino Romano.

Dessert items include Mermaid Treats, which are cheesecake slices from Atkins and old fashioned creamy caramel pecan turtles. Sticky Buns are sourdough yeast rolls made in Columbus, Indiana. Soirée swirling decanters are also available.

Special events at Mass Ave Wine Shoppe include a wine tasting the first Friday of each month. Manic Monday promotions include a buy three and get one free offer. When a customer purchases four wines, the least expensive of the wines is free. Trinchero Tuesdays include a 10 percent discount off any bottle of Trinchero wine. Every other Wednesday, the Dean Johnson Galley at 646 Massachusetts Avenue hosts a wine tasting event, which recently featured wines from Bordeaux.

Since the store's license doesn't permit wine tasting on site, Ditmire hosts wine tasting events for book clubs and private tasting parties in people's homes with as many as eight different wines and cheeses. Two recent wine tasting events were at the Villa Inn Restaurant and Spa, located at 1456 North Delaware Street and the Art bank, located at 811 Massachusetts Avenue. Events like these provide her unique marketing opportunities to display, educate and explain the qualities of cheeses, meats and wines that she presents to customers.

Mass Ave Wine Shoppe is working with its neighbor, the Circle City Basket Company, in selling specialty wine baskets with cheese and deli meat items for any occasion, making them delicious holiday gift. Their website, www.massavewine.com, has a detailed list of wine, beer, cheese, meats, olives and other special sales.

Central Indiana residents know Ditmire not only for her Gazette wine columns, but also as a former WTHR news anchor and medical reporter in the mid-1990s. She also works as feature reporter for WISH-TV's Weekend Daybreak Show. She has shared her wine knowledge with the Indianapolis Star and NUVO readers. She also appears on the "So Many Wines with Jill Ditmire" feature segment heard on WICR 88.7 FM's "Too Many Cooks" program on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 am to 10 am.

As host and producer of "The Good Life with Jill Ditmire" broadcast on WFYI public television from 1998 to 2004, she gave viewers a culinary journey into various wineries, restaurants, organic farms and agri-business throughout Indiana and the Midwest that included the Red Gold Company. Her vintage ventures have often crossed domestic borders where she visited Spain in 2006, Chile and Argentina in 2002. She recently toured Portugal and returned to the Bordeaux and Champaign wine regions of France.

She initially took viewers abroad to Bordeaux in southern France and to the 2000 London Wine Trade Fair during "The Good Life" episodes.

"I initially visited as a journalist to talk about wines and food, but now return as a buyer to ask about pricing and availability of various wines and cheeses," she explained.

Her interest in wine began when she was interviewing restaurateurs and wine experts while working on a morning TV show in Detroit, Mich. In casing wine stores and reading researching more about wine, she later joined the American Wine Society where she became certified to judge wine competitions. She has been an invited judge at the Indy International Wine Competition since 1999, which is the third largest competition in the US. She has also judged the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the World Wine Market International, Sonoma Country Harvest Wine Competition and the Michigan Great Lakes Great Wine Competition. She is also an Omnimedia Wine Specialist.

In her article, "Tasty Trek Indiana Wineries rooted in history," Ditmire writes, "In the early 1800s, Indiana was the nation's leading producer of wine grapes and wine, with Vevay as the center. The Ohio River Valley became known as the Rhineland of America. Land grabs in the 1800s and the prohibition of the 1920s uprooted that Indiana enterprise. Although no longer the leader some 200 years later, Hoosier wineries now produce about 711,000 gallons of wine annually. Consumers bought 3.5 million bottles of the Indiana-branded juice at wineries, grocery stores and wine shops."

Her article also notes that there are 34 wineries found in Indiana. Unlike alcohol retailers, Indiana wineries are licensed for tasting and sales on Sunday. "Wine making combines farming and chemistry, plus the passion of the individual winemaker," she stated.

In revitalizing a once struggling neighborhood wine shop, Ditmire has created a unique retail wine and deli atmosphere that enhances the growing rebirth of the historic Massachusetts Avenue District. This gives area wine lovers something well worth toasting this and every holiday season.