Carving out a unique (at least to your market) and interesting niche is a critical part of building a vialbe retail wine business. You do want to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew, though. [level-members]
For example, you might consider specializing in more obscure varietals. That can certainly be unique and interesting. (Assuming you keep a reasonable “back catalog” of the tried and true for less adventurous consumers in your market.) But even for more adventurous customers you consider “degrees of obscurity.” You can do this by featuring less-well-known varietals but from well-known regions – like these 14 unusual grapes from Napa Valley.
Or you can take another route and champion unsung regions from within a a more broadly popular region, as with this list of California’s unsung wine regions.
And, of course, you can always go for the truly obscure – just be comfortable knowing that the appeal is going to be much less broad. That can be OK, – even beneficial to your business – if your marketing centers around that smaller audience.
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