Dedicated wine stores are few on the Eastern Shore. But we locals know to pull into the Exxon stations that are also The Wine Rack stores. Behind the displays of Cheetos, Pringles, and soda-and-beer coolers are shelves well-stocked with surprisingly extensive and sophisticated inventories of wine. The four stores have the same owner, but each is managed individually. Which brings us to The Wine Rack on Rt. 13 in Fruitland and manager Wayne Moore.

Wayne loves wine the way Julia Child loved cooking. He’ll rapturously explain every moment of a wine’s creation from choosing the grape to planting the vine to picking the moment of harvest to the fermentation and the blending all the way to who designed the label and how the winery chose its name.

In his job, Wayne visits a lot of vineyards and attending tastings. Often the wines he likes are not available in Maryland because none of the wholesalers carry them. But he’s not willing to see his customers suffer such deprivation.

So several times a year, he works with one wholesaler to navigate the Maryland’s Byzantine liquor laws and import cases of otherwise-unavailable wines. Not just a few cases. Hundreds of cases, stacked hip-high in the aisles. Not just a few labels. Over 200 different wines from nine countries. These are good wines, too. He concentrates on smaller U.S. vineyards and European, Australian, South African and South American wines you generally only read about in wine columns.

You’d expect to pay premium prices for these wines, but here’s the real kicker: because he eliminates two middlemen from the ordering process, the wines go on sale at the “c’mon, you’re kidding me” price of 6 bottles for $29. Not to mention a 10% case discount. Yes, your math is correct. That translates to $4.35 a bottle.

Wayne spreads the cases around the store, puts some bottles on display, and shoots out an e-mail that his wine sale is on. It’s part treasure hunt, part Halloween trick-or-treating, part kids in a candy store as you pull a bottle from the cardboard box, check the label, and decide if it’s something you’re interested in. Wayne and his equally knowledgeable assistant, Charles, are on hand to answer questions, make suggestions, and convince you that as long as you’ve picked 9 bottles, you shouldn’t put three back, but may as well go for 12 and get the case discount.

The wine sale continues until the inventory is exhausted. That only takes a week or so. The only way to learn about it aside from signing up for the e-mail list in the store is word-of-mouth. The store doesn’t have a web site or e-mail. And while he has a rough idea of when the shipment will arrive, Wayne himself doesn’t know that his sale is imminent until the truck pulls up.

The truck got in on Friday.

Have fun!

I did.