A Quick Peek At The New Stew Leonard's

With the long-anticipated opening of Stew Leonard's Wine & Spirits, Springfield is the new center of gravity of the well-priced wine world. 

Patch took a tour of the beautiful and welcoming store during its "soft opening" on Monday. Manager Rob Reynolds showed us around the thousands of bottles, priced from $2 to $200. He pointed out  fine wines, micro-brews and single malt scotches. According to a Stew Leonard's spokesperson the store boasts more than 2000 varieties of wine from around the world.

The new Springfield location will also host daily in-store samplings, as well as numerous special events and educational wine seminars, featuring well-known wine makers and award-winning wines.

The 'official' ribbon cutting is Saturday August 21 at noon when Springfield Deputy Mayor Bart Fraenkel and committeemen Jerry Fernandez, Hugh Keffer and Marc Krauss will join Stew Leonard Jr and wine-world notables such as Cristina Mariani-May of Castello Banfi in celebrating the opening. There will be wine tastings and prizes for attendees.

Stew Leonard's is located at Echo Plaza Shopping Center. It's open six days a week from nine to nine. Noon to six on Sunday. The store currently employs about a dozen people and is looking to hire.