For years, Dan Marioni of Marioni Wine and Aaron Brown, co-owner of Bardos Cider, have traveled up and down the West Coast and internationally to campaign for the love of natural wine and cider. It’s been a political movement of sorts for the distinct style, made most often with no added yeast or other inputs and sustainable farming in the vineyard.
But despite all its low-intervention, back-to-the-land ambitions, natural wine can get a bad rap at times.
“The biggest misunderstanding is that natural wine is inherently funky, weird — you know, not wine anymore,” says Marioni. “It doesn’t mean that your Chardonnay all of a sudden turns into kombucha.”
On one of their tours, it dawned on Brown and Marioni that, coming from the wine-loving community of Sonoma, they shouldn’t need to travel to New York and Europe and Mexico to campaign for their labors. So now they have their very own campaign headquarters: Dos’ Bar. Dos’ started as a renegade pop-up and moveable feast around Sonoma. Now it has found new life in a brick-and-mortar space just off the Sonoma Plaza.
The term “tasting room” or “salon” isn’t quite right for the vibe this crew is cultivating. Located in a former Odd Fellows Hall, the rustic bar evokes backroad wineries or mythic California roadhouses with dollar bills hanging from low ceilings — think Washoe House with orange wine instead of PBR. The shelves are made of church pews found in a horse stable, repurposed and refinished by hand.
Nearly a dozen collaborators are featured, all part of the new guard of natural winemaking in the region. They include Anne Disabato and Noelle Vandendriessche at Etteilla Wines, Isabella Morano at Isa Wines, David Rothschild at Las Vivas, Caleb Leisure of Caleb Leisure Wines, Jack Sporer at Fres.Co, Matt Neiss at North American Press, and Brent Mayeaux at Stagiaire Wine.
This harvest, Dos’ is the place where these winemakers, who normally live in the cellar for months on end, have a place to lean against the bar — which means wine tasters looking to connect with winemakers during harvest also find refuge.
And since Brown is a storyteller above all else, when you walk into Dos’ Bar you might see shoutouts to anyone from Modoc chief Captain Jack Kintpuash and outlaw Joaquin Murrieta to rapper Mac Dre and organic farmer Amigo Bob Cantisano.
“Dos is like a character,’’ he says. “So, we see ourselves as docents of these stories. We’re not taking credit for the stories, but we’re here to steward and foster and amplify the storytelling.”
Dos’ Bar, 521 Broadway, Sonoma. Open noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Thursday. 707-933-6999, dos-bar.com