25 Feb 15th–Feb 21st, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | A Natural Evolution Get to know Unfiltered Natural Wine, a new woman-owned bottle shop downtown. BY SARA CROCKER T here’s a new wine store in the former downtown space of Hidden Track Bottle Shop, helmed by a previous employee. Corianne Nelson opened Unfiltered Wine Natural Wine and More on Oct. 16, but has since updated the space and is gearing up for an official grand opening on Feb. 3. Nelson took over the shop after learning Hidden Track owners Craig Dziadowicz and Danielle Middlebrook intended to focus on their uptown bottle shop and bar. “We’ve got a great customer base,” Nelson says of one factor that motivated her to take over the store. Since she got the keys, she’s trans- formed the space with earthy and bright pops of color painted in ‘90s-nostalgic squiggles across the walls. “I want it to be more friendly, more casual and more approachable so people don’t feel intimidated about coming in here and learning something about wine that they don’t know,” Nelson says. “It can be intimidating and there’s so much to know about wine – I learn something new every day and I love it.” Nelson admits that she can easily go down a rabbit hole with her hobbies and interests – it’s what led her to launch Treehouse Bakery with her sister Amanda Sizemore in 2010. The pair sold the vegan sweets shop in 2018. Nelson fell further down the rabbit hole with wine – and turned it into a job – after meeting Dziadowicz and Middlebrook at a neighbor’s house. “We were chatting about wine and that’s how we connected,” Nelson says. “(Craig) offered me a job, so I started here in the middle of the pandemic.” Nelson’s interest in wine starts with the stories of the land and the people who create these drinks. “It really comes down to history. There’s so much history in every bottle,” she says. “I think it’s really cool to be able to tell those stories. This is (a) family in a bottle.” The new wine shop has the same ethos as Hidden Track around the bottles it carries, with Nelson favoring natural and low-intervention wines. “It’s better for you, it’s better for the environment, it’s better for everything,” she says. The shop is organized by region, with different parts of the globe featured on shelves and cabinets that envelop the space. Selecting the wines comes down to “how it was made, where it came from and that it was made well – and didn’t have one of those 70-something additives thrown in there,” Nelson says. For her, taste is paramount, but she picks wines that are at a minimum, made by using organic or biodynamic practices, with a preference for spontaneously fermented and unfiltered wines. She hopes to expand her customers’ understanding of wine, particularly natural wine. That means sometimes dispelling misconceptions. “You can’t really judge how natural a wine is by looking at it,” she says of the fogginess that has become a ubiquitous identifier. Nelson grabs a bottle of Bordeaux Blanc as an example, noting that while the wine is crystal clear, it’s also unfiltered. The shop also offers a cold case of heavily local craft beer and cider. To encourage conversation, community and education, Nelson aims to keep the space malleable. The displays in the center of the store are all on casters so that she can move them around to make way for gatherings including tastings, classes and meet-the- maker events. “I really wanted it to be a flexible space so we can do more than just sell wine,” she says. “I want it to be community-focused.” Unfiltered Natural Wine and More 111 W. Monroe St., #120 Corianne Nelson knows that wine can be intimidating so she set out to create an inviting space to learn, taste and shop at her downtown bottle shop Unfiltered Natural Wine and More. (Photo by Sara Crocker) ▼ Food & Drink
