The owners of Daigneault Liquors want people to know that they have made spirits rise—literally—at the former location of The Grape Vine, which until this fall had sold only wine and beer at the 285 Ayer Road store.
Since opening Daigneault’s in September, Chris Green, who owns the store with his brother Al Green, has gradually added a full range of liquors, plus boxed gift sets, snacks, mixers, and a variety of canned cocktails. The selection of beer (including nonalcoholic beer), wine, and hard cider has been expanded, as has the selection of champagne and sparkling wine. On a recent visit to the store, high- end champagne such as Veuve Clicquot, Nicolas Feuillatte, Lanson, and Moet & Chandon kept company in the refrigerated case with seven kinds of reasonably priced prosecco.
Store manager Jodie Lasonde handles one of the more than 40 brands of whiskey stocked at Daigneault Liquors. (Photo by Thomas Kilian)
The store’s manager, Jodie Lasonde, said she is still getting to know the local customers and their preferences. One thing that appears to be very popular here, she said, is whiskey: blends, single-malt, bourbon, and rye from Ireland, Tennessee, Kentucky, Canada, Japan, and Scotland. As of last week, the number of whiskey—or whisky, as it is known in Scotland and Japan—brands carried at the store tallied up to 41, though Lasonde said she still had a few more brands to add to the two full shelves.
To let people know how the store has changed, and to introduce new customers to Daigneault’s, Lasonde said the store will host wine or beer tastings from 4 to 7 p.m. on most Fridays.
Green told the Press that opening the Harvard store has taken a bit longer than he’d anticipated, citing the death of his father—who was an integral part of the business—and pandemic-related delays in permitting. The biggest challenge, though, is competition from big-box stores, he said.
No need to leave town
By necessity, Green said, some residents are accustomed to driving out of town when they need to shop at a fully stocked liquor store. Competing head-to-head with the behemoths isn’t in the cards, he said, but providing a good selection, locally and at reasonable prices, is something he thinks will appeal to the people of Harvard, even those who are used to leaving Harvard to shop. He hopes the thoughtfully chosen selection and tradition of helpful service at his store will change habits.
“My brother and I are third-generation in this business,” Chris Green said, noting that Daigneault’s was founded in 1919 in Hudson by his grandfather and great-uncle. In addition to the Hudson and Harvard stores, he and his brother own stores in Berlin and Bolton. “We specialize in serving the smaller towns,” he said.
But how, a curious customer or reporter may wonder, is the store’s name pronounced? Green chuckles before sounding out the family name. “If you say it as my dad did, it’s Dane-yoh,” he said, although he noted that a native French speaker might suggest a slightly different pronunciation. What he’d like more than the perfect pronunciation of the family name, he said, is for people to give the shop a try.
