Total Wine & More, one of the country's larger and faster growing wine chains, is expanding into California for the first time with a store about to open in Roseville.

When it does, it's likely to be the 800-pound gorilla on the local wine-marketing scene. The new store, to be at 5791 Five Star Drive just north of Highway 65 and west of Stanford Ranch Road in Roseville, will cover 25,000 square feet. The inventory will include more than 8,000 varieties of wine, more than 1,000 beers and more than 2,000 spirits, says company spokesman Jeff Bartlett. The opening is anticipated in two to three weeks.

The Roseville store will be the 51st in the chain. The company originated in 1991 when brothers David and Robert Trone bought two small retail wine stores in Delaware. Total Wine & More, whose headquarters now are in Maryland, has concentrated its growth up to this time along the East Coast and in the South.

Bartlett deferred questions about why the company chose Roseville to president David Trone, who isn't to return to his office until Monday. Stay tuned.