Breathe Wine & Culture Co. offers both local and worldly spirits, food, gifts and more in the heart of downtown Huntington.
By Jean Hardiman
HQ 130 | SUMMER 2025
Three words: Free wine sampling. That’s what Breathe Wine & Culture Co. offers on Saturdays and, over the past year, has marked the beginning of many great relationships that have helped this local business come to truly enjoy the people of Huntington.
“Huntington is vibrant. There is a lot going on here,” said Cheryl Herdman, who opened the Huntington location of the business in 2024. The first location in Cross Lanes has since closed, and working with the Huntington community has turned out to be a tremendous experience, said Herdman and her operations manager, Devon Reed.
“In our experience, there is definitely an effort to support local businesses and to try new things in Huntington,” said Herdman. “Here, it’s easy to meet people and get them to feel comfortable enough to try something new.”
Recently celebrating its one-year anniversary at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street, Breathe Wine & Culture Co. offers fine wines and craft beers from around the world, including a robust selection of West Virginia-made spirits. In addition, the establishment offers a selection of charcuterie, locally made baked goods and a bistro that serves lunch each weekday. A gift shop includes coffees, preserves and candies, along with arts and crafts. Oh, and they offer catering services, too.
Herdman said one of the staff’s favorite things to do is help customers put together specialty gift baskets, whether it’s for someone hosting guests from out of state or a business professional who needs just the right gift for a partner or client.
“We can do West Virginia gift baskets, with a bottle of wine, some beer and local gifts,” Herdman said. “I like people to think about gift-giving in a different way.”
In terms of wine, the shop sells various sweet wines from West Virginia and Ohio, a large selection of fine wines and Champagne from around the world and specialty items, such as Dragon Fire, a shimmering sparkling wine with edible glitter.
“We have far more than you could find at a grocery store — more options and variety,” Herdman noted. “We have a shelf of wines called the Fabulous Fifteens. They’re $15 and under and really, really good wines. We’ll try anything, but if it turns out to not be a good wine, we’ll kick it out — even if the label is cute.”
Free wine sampling is offered on Saturdays from 3 to 9 p.m., Herdman said.
“We like trying something new and different,” she explained. “We do themes. Last week, we did a blind wine tasting. We had people try wine from what was considered the old world — Europe — and the new world — regions like California and Venezuela.”
While Herdman enjoys curating the wine selection, Reed takes the lead in assembling the craft beer offerings.
“I always tell people, ‘You deserve to drink good beer,’” Reed said. “West Virginia is good at craft beer. We have a lot of amazing breweries — even some award-winning breweries.”
“A lot of people who come to town for conventions and things get really excited about the craft beer from West Virginia,” Herdman added.
Breathe Wine & Culture Co.’s catering services will accommodate a variety of needs: charcuterie, full dinners, pasta bars, comfort food, tea parties, brunches, coffee bars, sandwich trays — “literally anything,” said Reed.
Herdman and Reed work with local businesses every chance they get and showcase products from local breweries, wineries, bakers and artists. The walls of the bistro display paintings for sale, and the gift shop is filled with prints, woodworks, pottery, jewelry, T-shirts and more — all made locally.
“We try to shop small to help our people shop small,” Reed said. “If they see that we’re making an effort to do that, it helps them try to pay more attention and try to support local artists. Shopping local is just more interesting. It makes for better shopping and gifting.”
Learn more at breathewinewv.com or by calling 304-949-8595.
