The number of dedicated Capitol Hill wine shops is about to increase by 50%. Essence Wine Shop is slated for an opening around the Christmas holiday before the end of the year.

“We love Capitol Hill and have been living here on the hill for couple years,” co-owner Winston Xu tells CHS. “We would like to open a business that serves local community as well.”

He and fellow co-owner Zach Weissman are taking over the retail space at 415 E Pine left empty with the closure of the CakeSpy Shop this June.

Xu tells us the Essence shop will be “shaped as an artesian cave, a cave of stacked wine boxes with bottled wine atop.”

He gets even more poetic when he starts talking about the bottles. “The wine artfully chosen from the river valleys of Washington, Oregon, France, Italy Spain, Portugal, and Germany,” Xu writes. “All at prices that maintain wine not as a luxury but as an essential.”

You sold us, Winston. It’s the first retail shop for the duo though Weissman’s CV includes a stint at Mercer Island’s The Olde Wine Shop.

Essence joins Boylston/E Olive Way’s Vino Verite and old-timer EVS Wines on 15th Ave E in supplying grape-born goodness to Capitol Hill. Its opening restores Capitol Hill proper to three dedicated wine shops following the spring closure of 12th and Olive Wine.

Essence hours are planned to be 11 AM to 8 PM, closed Mondays. A schedule for tastings is being worked as well as a weekly Wednesday dance night in the small shop. Keep your eyes peeled for an opening party via the Essence Wine Shop Facebook page.