SHORT ORDERS Funky, Trendy and Here to Stay

The best places (and reasons) to pick up a bottle of natural wine in St. Louis

Written by THOMAS CRONE

Within the last handful of years, natural wines have become a staple on the backbars of local establishments as well as on the shelves of wine shops. They’ve become so much of a draw of late that special sections frequently call them out, like at Clayton’s popular provisions shop Parker’s Table, which features a full endcap of natural wines just a few paces through the front door.

Simon Lehrer, the wine buyer at Parker’s, says that distributors are through the door on a weekly basis. They often carry debuting naturals with them on sales calls, whether altogether new or simply new to the market. Because natural wines have become popular for many a shopper, and with splashy, fun branding on many of the bottles, they’ve been a relatively easy sell for the store, with customers wanting to explore new titles regularly.

Why drinkers choose naturals, though, can range widely, and Lehrer says that “the reason that we use the phrase ‘natural’ is to just start the conversation. We want to find out what’s important to them, and then decide how deep we want to go down the rabbit hole.”

Kelly Nyikes, a veteran of the service industry in multiple roles and a three-year member of the A. Bommarito sales team, frequently calls on Parker’s Table. In fact, he was slated for a tasting the day after our visit to the shop. He lists a multiple-aspect rubric that helps his company deliver on the basics of natural wine, sometimes also known as “low-intervention” or “minimal-intervention wines.”

Those phrases suggest that the growers emphasize organic practices in the field, use natural yeasts and use no-to-low sulfite content. About seven different components go into a natural designation for the company.

The whole of his time at Bommarito has overlapped with the rise of these wines in this market.

“Natural wine,” he says, “is very much a reaction to the overprocessed, inauthentic wines that have come to dominate the market since the introduction of chemical farming and post-production winemaking.”

He adds that “we are exiting the inflationary period of natural trendlines and focusing on quality and authentic production techniques. You are seeing wines get cleaner; they’re less flawed with less production inconsistencies. There have been a bunch of messy exposés revealing sketchy labor practices, bad winemaking choices, opaque farming practices, big companies masquerading as small, natty producers, etc., etc., etc. We are now finally figuring out how to vet our producers and reward those that are ethically aligned and making superior wines.”

He suggests that those looking for a bottle of natural wine have no shortage of choices, including Parker’s, plus: Grand Spirits Co., Local Harvest Grocery, Pastaria Deli, Spirit Wine & Craft, Wild

Olive Provisions and Civil Alchemy. For a glass, he offers Olive + Oak, Pizzeria da Gloria, Bowood by Niche, the Clover and the Bee, Little Fox, the Lucky Accomplice, Salve Osteria and ’Ssippi, as well as the perhaps unexpected choice of Rockwell Beer Company.

As Lehrer did, Nyikes says that a bit of an adventurous palette is needed, as there’s “variation in bottle, case and, most certainly, vintage. These wines are supposed to be unique; they are supposed to be one-offs; they are supposed to be originals that are tied to their land and their vintage, so don’t expect consistency across years, brands or styles. These winemakers are constantly learning and experimenting with new ideas to better translate terroir into juice.”

A veteran of the mats at both 33 Wine Bar and Civil Life Brewing, Joe Mooney’s been working a trio of projects, including the monthly pop-up series Place & Time and Tended Cellars, a business that’s “providing comprehensive wine-cellar management from cellar organization to purchase/liquidation brokerage and fully covered relocation logistical support.” In essence, Mooney works with buyers to secure (and protect) valued wines at oft-high price points.

On a given afternoon or early evening, though, Mooney finds himself reaching for a bottle in the affordable price range, as naturals settle around $20 per bottle.

Mooney, as someone who spent years selling beers, sees a natural parallel between the rise of craft brewers and natural wine brands. He figures that naturals have really taken off in the past two to four years, and that “it’s really gained speed. There’s a lot of similarity to the acceptance of these wines next to Belgian-style sour beers that the American public have easily embraced, these tart and funky flavor profiles.

“I think the general public is very excited and accepting of these,” Mooney says. “And this has been driven by public acceptance, rather than wine-industry professionals pushing it.”

He says that the terms of “overtartness, mousiness and funk,” are part of the enjoyment of a bottle, best enjoyed sooner than later.

“Get into a bottle,” he suggests. “Get through it, and just enjoy it.” n