Wine shop changes hands

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: October 1, 2008

Culpeper’s resident wine expert is trading his grapes for life on the beach.

Monroe Baisden, owner of Chateau du Reaux at 219 E. Davis St. for the past eight years, is getting ready to leave town for North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

He officially transferred ownership of his downtown wine shop Wednesday to Kim Kelly, a Madison County resident who previously worked for a Richmond-based wine distributor and in that capacity had done business with Baisden over the years.

However, he’s not leaving just yet. Baisden plans to hang around the wine shop for a while, helping Kelly with the transition for as long as he can.

And don’t worry: he will continue penning his popular Star-Exponent wine column for a while more.

Baisden said he and his wife Pat, who works at the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce, have been planning the move to Corolla, N.C. for a few years now.

The couple recently purchased a house there and hopes to take the full-time plunge sometime later this year. There’s also the issue of selling their home in Culpeper, which Baisden didn’t expect would “be flying off the market anytime soon.”

But for now, he has a lot to remember.

“Tomorrow will be weird,” Baisden said from inside Chateau Tuesday, the day before he passed the reigns to Ms. Kelly.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

The same held true for the new owner of Chateau du Reaux.

“I hope that I can fill Monroe’s very big shoes,” said Kelly, who fled the beltway traffic of Springfield with her husband a few years ago for a cabin in the Blue Ridge of rural Madison County.

Running her own business was something she always wanted to do, she said.

“When I heard this shop was for sale, I thought it was a really good opportunity to keep the store going,” said Kelly.

“The store has become a valuable resource within the community and even better yet, the community has really helped to shape and define the store,” she added of Monroe’s Friday night wine tastings at which friends and colleagues come to try a new vintage, yes, but also just to catch up with each other.

Kelly definitely plans to continue the end-of-work-week tastings and hopes, in the future, to expand on that and offer some wine education for customers.

As for the wine selection, the basics will remain the same.

“We will focus on what we call the staple products that people know and love and throw in some new stuff to keep them entertained and feeling adventurous along the way,” she said.

Kelly said she might change Chateau’s name in the New Year, but her focus now is getting ready for the holidays.

“I want to get to know the customers and their palettes, eventually, and expand and build on the selections Monroe has established,” she said.

Baisden said Chateau is in good hands.

“I wanted my customers that we’ve built up over the years to come in here after we were gone and have somebody they could count on who knew what they were doing, knew wines and was fun and friendly to be around,” he said. “That’s why it was so great Kim showed an interest because she’s all of this things.”

Baisden, who served two terms as president of Culpeper Renaissance, said he would most miss his customers as well as the camaraderie among downtown merchants.

“I have a good time in here.”

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or