There’s a door open at the back of Shop Boswell, the stylish clothing and accessory shop owned by milliner Brookes Boswell. To access the door in question requires a detour around Boswell’s shag rug-like dog, Bao, and entering it takes you to the home of Ardor Natural Wines, a square room the size of a generous walk-in closet. The room is lined floor to ceiling with sleek, … [Read more...] about Inside Ardor Natural Wines, A Portland Bottle Shop Tearing Down Walls
Ruby Wine
Wine Shots Is The Wine Zine The World Needs
One can argue—and I intend to—that we're in something of a golden moment right now for international wine culture. Doubt me if you want, and I won't pretend to argue that wine right now is somehow better or more compelling than it has been at any other point in the last, oh, 8,000 years, give or take. But I think there's something happening here in America and in different ways … [Read more...] about Wine Shots Is The Wine Zine The World Needs
Natural Wine Has No Calories
In addition to being free of added sulfites, fining agents, chemical additives, centrifugal alcoholic manipulations, chaptalization, wood chips, vanilla extract, diethylene glycol, dried swim bladders, bovine stomach acid, Mega Purple, and dozens more wine-helping chemicals currently undergoing rigorous testing at the University of California-Davis, today it was discovered that … [Read more...] about Natural Wine Has No Calories
Brumaire: Oakland’s Natural Wine Fair Returns March 11th
In 1799, the Coup of Brumaire marked the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte as rule in France. In 2016 a very different sort of Brumaire-ian coup was hatched in Oakland, California, where a crew of likeminded natural wine geeks conspired to throw a proper wine fair for the American west coast. Thus, Brumaire was launched—an American-born natural wine fete inspired by the Dives, … [Read more...] about Brumaire: Oakland’s Natural Wine Fair Returns March 11th
Ruby Wine: Above The Fog On San Francisco’s Potrero Hill
I know of a little wine shop on the top of a hill, peeking out above the fog that blankets San Francisco. It's called Ruby Wine, and it might be the best natural wine shop in America right now—for selection, for vibe, and for that special ineffable x-factor that happens when the soul of a neighborhood fuses with the place that serves it. Where the character of a street, a … [Read more...] about Ruby Wine: Above The Fog On San Francisco’s Potrero Hill