Vineyard Trip Rejuvenates St. Pete Woman's Love For Wine, Leading To New Business

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Jessica Arkwright, founder of Must Wine Loft, thought when she said goodbye to wine in 2016 there'd be no turning back. Kind of like a breakup.

Arkwright, 45, had left wine for cybersecurity following numerous years working in hospitality. In 2018, she went to a winery — an Oregon vineyard — and two weeks later, a California vineyard hooked her back in.

"I was going to school for cybersecurity at St. Pete College back in 2016, and I didn't want anything to do with the world of hospitality and wine," Arkwright said in a Patch interview. "I mean, I did and I didn't. I was on the way out in my head. Mentally prepared to be on my way out, as I was working at the [St. Pete] yacht club during school."

Arkwright also spent two years as beverage manager, including handling wine orders, for the now-closed Locale Market and its upstairs restaurant.

Arkwright's feelings for the wine business changed back to love upon visiting a friend in Oregon in the summer of 2018 during a trip for leisure, not for work, she said.

"It was interesting going as a regular person, and not as a buyer," Arkwright said. "As embarrassing as it is to admit, it was soul-crushing [going as a buyer]."

Four years later, Arkwright shares her wine knowledge in a former laundromat space, now called Must Wine Loft, at 442 Second Street North in St. Petersburg. Wines from across the world that include red, white, pink and orange are available by the glass and by the bottle. Some of Arkwright's menu food items are tapas, cheeses, paninis and salads.

"I love talking about wine and getting people to taste wine and to get them to discover other regions that they aren't familiar with and understand it better, so they don't feel intimidated by wine," she said.

Arkwright said she is grateful for Raymond Cotteret — she would know nothing about cheese if it weren't for him. Cotteret, a retired cheesemonger, worked as the cheese manager at Locale Market and now shares his specialty knowledge with Arkwright and her cheese manager, Charlie Maki, a former cheesemonger at Mazzaro's Market.

Once a month, Must Wine Loft hosts wine tastings. Arkwright said customers are welcome to sample a taste of wine while they're inside shopping.

Must Wine Loft opened in March 2020 — at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arkwright credits many of the pop-up tastings the shop had during COVID for keeping her business afloat.

She also got in as a gift-basket vendor for Tech Data Corporation, a global distributor of technology products headquartered in Clearwater, as their employees began to work from home for COVID-19 safety precautions.

Must Wine Loft offers outdoor and indoor seating. A future plan for Arkwright's shop is to increase its physical size by adding the space next door in the same building by the end of 2022.

That space is a former gym. And before that, it was a sailboat and yacht charter office on the corner of Fifth Avenue North and Second Street North, across from Kahwa Coffee.

Must Wine Loft is open Tuesday-Thursday, 2-9 p.m.; and Friday-Saturday, 12-9 p.m. For more information, visit its website.