SAN MARCOS - Local wine enthusiasts who savor the atmosphere of vineyard tasting rooms where they can talk shop and sample new releases, will no longer have to fight weekend crowds in Temecula to taste unique varietals.

A tasting room and wine shop, called North County Wine Co., is opening next week on San Marcos Boulevard and will feature bottles from more than 200 domestic and international wineries.

The store's owner, retired real estate consultant James Allyn, said people can hang out at the tasting bar and sample one of about 30 bottles being poured or buy whatever is in stock. If he doesn't have it, he'll special order from any winery willing to ship to the United States.

"Usually a tasting room is at some guy's old farm. Most guys take a plank of wood and put it over boxes of wine," he said. "Instead of having one to six wines, we've got 220 different labels."

The grand opening is 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 7 at 1099 San Marcos Blvd.

"We'll have 30 open bottles back here," he said.

Allyn has been renovating the1,500-square-foot building that used to house a golf shop. Barrels from a Carlsbad winery will be placed around the store, and act as a support for the bamboo tasting bar. The wooden texture complements champagne colored walls and burgundy trim.

"I'm trying to make the whole place look like a wine barrel," said Allyn, who turned 55 on July 6.

"I made a promise to myself years ago that when I turned 55, I would open my dream store. This is it."

For the last year, he has been stocking a 2,000-square-foot Carlsbad warehouse with wine. And he recently hired two full-time wine managers from the wine brokerage house, Harvest Ranch Market, who started work on Monday.

"They're at my house right now ordering $500,000 worth of wine," he said.

"San Marcos needs this. There is nothing like this in North County. The closest thing is the San Diego Wine Co. off Miramar, and they're missing the tasting part."

In popular wine regions, like Napa and Sonoma, visitors will pay $5 to taste anywhere from three to five demi-size pours. The fee is usually deducted from purchases. At the North County Wine Co., discounts will come in multiples of 10: a $5 taste, for instance, is waived for purchases of $50, Allyn said.

He said multiple distributors and contacts he's made through the years of exploring vineyards allow him to offer unique bottles that cannot be found at the local Ralph's or Albertson's.

"Only five percent of the wines here will you find in the grocery store. Grocery stores don't sell good wine," he said.

Each month, Allyn will feature three exhibits -- a winery of the month, a region of the month, and a value of the month. In September, Italy is the region, the Brassfield Estate Winery from Lake County is the featured winery, and South America is the value exhibit.

"South American wines are really value wines" and driving down prices for wines from California and France, he said.

"You're seeing a 20 percent reduction in prices for domestics because of imported competition," he said.

His wines will cost between $5 and $500 a bottle. Every bottle offered will have passed through a board of tasters that meet a couple of times a month.

"We'll have 60 wines under $10 that are fantastic," he said. "Then, another 130 to 140 wines that are $10 to $25. And another 60 wines or so over $50."

The shop will also sell gift boxes, cork screws, wine decanters, bottle chillers and other picnic items. Cheese, crackers and pate will be set out on the bar for tastings.

Allyn said he signed a 10-year lease on the store property. Contractors are coming in this week to repave the parking lot and pour gravel in the backyard for a dog park.

He and his wife, Rebecca Negard, moved to San Marcos 2 1/2 years ago because it was more affordable than Encinitas, where they lived for 16 years. He grew up in Marin County.

Allyn said he was once a cartoonist and produced 100 animated short films of the 1950s-era character Gumby for Lorimar-Telepictures.

He moved to San Diego after losing his business assets in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. Now after 20 years in mortgage and real estate, he said he is ready to move into the wine business.

"The demographics are huge. We chose San Marcos on purpose because of the demographics and lack of people doing what we're doing," he said. "We've filled the gap."

Store hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

- Contact staff writer Ned Randolph at (760) 761-4411 or nrandolph@nctimes.com.