Everyone wishes they can turn their hobby into a profession, but often that wish cannot be made into a reality. But a local group of businessmen have done just that, opening a business that prides itself on some of the best tasting wines with some even better stories behind them.

Pirate Wines, one of the newest installations to the downtown Washington business community, chose Washington for its own, mainly due to its owners’ preference of starting the business in the place they call home. Local businessmen Michael Denny, Ronald Lundy and Norman Hawn decided to plant roots in Washington also because of its strategic location, enabling them to access all parts of eastern North Carolina by accessing one of several primary highways leading in and out, said Hawn.

Hawn said Denny, at one time, worked for some of the bigger distributors in the business but didn’t like the lack of attention and education he was able to give customers about the wines he sold.

“He wanted to be able to step up and mold a business on the terms he thought it should be done,” Hawn said of Denny. “We wanted to start where our roots are and another big advantage to Washington is we sit at a nice crossroads in eastern North Carolina so we can head out on any highway and pretty much get to any city we need to go to serve our customer base.”

With a broad, regional client base, stretching as far south as Jacksonville and Wilmington and hopes of tapping Raleigh’s market, the business deals with a vast spectrum of wines — varietals and blends, Hawn said. The business specializes in old-world wines, mostly those of European origin. And while many in the industry focus on pairing wines with foods in hopes of hooking clients, the Washington-based distributor puts its focus in pairing their wines with people.

“It’s almost more intriguing to pair wines with customers rather than with foods,” Hawn said. There are a lot of qualities and attributes assigned to wine, and it’s easier to match attributes to customers. Wine, in this region, is shifting quite rapidly. It’s always interesting in regions like this. People from bigger cities have transiently come in and there are different preferences and opinion of wine.”

Hawn said that while wine has been labeled as a highbrow product, it’s just not true nowadays. Whether one shares wine among a social gathering of friends, enjoys a glass at the end of a long day at work or attends wine tastings to expand  knowledge and taste, more and more people are experiencing wine. And though taste is important, educating the masses of wine drinkers in the region is a priority for Pirate Wines — education not only focusing on how different wines taste and why but how the wines were made, Hawn said.

“It’s always more pleasing when you can sit down and learn a story or an anecdote about a winemaker or the vineyard or even the grapes themselves,” Hawn said. “When we buy (the wines), we do as much as we can to learn everything about the product — not just how it tastes, but where it came from or how many generations of family have worked on that vineyard. Wars were fought in Europe for centuries just over the land where these vineyards were on. For us, it was our goal to take some of these legends and lessons and tell the customer about it. Then, when they go and share it with their friends, they kind of recount the stories and history of these wines.”

Though Pirate Wines does not sell to individual wine-lovers, it sells to many locally owned restaurants and wine shops, Hawn said. And, in turn, this history and knowledge is passed on with each sale, not just through sales but through wine tastings — social tastings in wine shops like downtown Washington’s Wine and Words or tastings in restaurants for wait staff to learn about a newly purchased wine, Hawn said.

“We don’t just want to sell the product, we want to bring a sense of unity and connection,” Hawn said. “With the wine business that’s growing in eastern North Carolina, it’s a very saturated market. You kind of have to find your distinction among those selling the same wines, and that’s kind of our focal point. When people learn those stories, they get excited and want to buy the product or invest the money they’ve earned into something that meant something to someone or had a great story behind it. Our biggest thing is a lot of our stuff is really tied to our ability to sell the stories. We really want to build this social aspect on top of just being a business.”

For more information about Pirate Wines, contact Norman Hawn at Norman@piratewine.biz or 704-574-6786 or contact Michael Denny at Michael@piratewine.biz or 252-402-3310.