New Owner For Belmont Center’s Vintage Wine Store

Photo: Interior of the store.

Vintages: Adventures in Wine, the Belmont Center store which holds the distinction of being one of the first granted a town’s retail alcohol license, has been sold to a MetroWest businessman.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen approved the transfer of the beer-and-wine-only license held by Albert Avenue’s Eric Broege and Carolyn Kemp to Swapnil Gandbhir of Framingham on Monday, Aug. 22.

The store is located at 32 Leonard St., adjacent to the restaurant Asai which is closing down to allow a retail operation to move in. The new owner has signed a ten-year lease with an option after the first five years to leave without a penalty.

Gandbhir said the past owners told him they wished to concentrate on their first business, a West Concord wine store with the same name.

As for the business, the only changes coming to the store will be the addition of American and other non-European vintages as well as prepackaged snacks.

“There will be no renovation of the interior so it will look the same as it has in the past,” Gandbhir told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

One of the final remaining “dry” towns in the Commonwealth in the 1990s, Belmont voted in 1998 to allow limited restaurant alcohol licenses. Seven years later, Town Meeting approved the issuance of a full-liquor and a wine and malt licence and voters approved the measure in April 2008.  The Spirited Gourmet in Cushing Village was awarded the full license.