Shop Women Made Wine and Support Dressember
Vinovore Wants You to Find the Best Wines...
Naturally (& Support Dressember)
How do you pick wine to go with dinner? The varietal, the vineyard, the price point? (We’ll keep your secret even if you sometimes choose by the label.) But do you know the philosophy and growing practices of the winemaker behind the bottle?
PHOTO: Coly Den Haan, owner/sommelier of Vinovore.
Coly Den Haan is owner/sommelier of Vinovore, a wine shop in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles that features women winemakers. Coly’s mission with Vinovore goes beyond selling you the right bottle of wine to go with your pasta. She’s in it to educate people’s palates and make wine purchases a fun and exciting exploration, along the way she’s introducing people to the concept of natural wines.
What are natural wines?
Think minimal intervention. Coly describes the latest Vinovore wine to hit the shop, a half-bottle of their Desert Nights Pet-Nat, as bone-dry and made from “organic grapes and love.”
She describes natural wines as being “made without additives, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, commercial yeasts and all the tricks that manipulate wines and farming.” The whole philosophy can be summed up as “letting the grape stand for itself, and have the soil and terroir speak through the bottle,” explains Coly. (“Terroir” is a French term for how an area’s climate, soil, and terrain influence a wine’s taste.)
Why Dressember?
It’s this holistic vision around winemaking that led Vinovore to partner up with Dressember.
“I applaud some of the bigger winemakers who have come out and taken a stand against trafficking and slavery. We wanted to jump in and do our part by offering a portion of our Wolfpack monthly subscription sales to Dressember.
There isn’t a certification for natural wines and labor practices at this time, but choosing boutique, natural wines carries less risk for human rights abuses. The winemakers we work with at Vinovore are doing small production. It’s the difference between 300 cases vs. 30k cases. In some cases it’s the farmer and wife out in the fields picking. Because I work directly with many of our winemakers, I get to see first hand their passion and commitment to celebrating the grape, the terroir and the process.”
How can I shop responsibly when it comes to wine?
Check out your neighborhood wine shop and ask if they carry natural wines. Ask about their relationship with the winemakers and distributors and labor practices. Asking these questions puts the issue on the radar and lets shop owners know their customers care. That’s the power of the consumer and one way to create change and impact.
Why a wine subscription?
With Vinovore’s Wolfpack, each month Coly handpicks a fiercely tasty selection of wines for subscribers and writes up pairing and tasting notes. Treat yourself, send a subscription to your BFF, mom or deserving co-worker and we’ll send off a check to help Dressember in the fight for dignity and human rights.
When you buy a Wolfpack subscription as a gift, we’ll let the lucky recipient know some great wines are on the way and that this is a gift that makes an impact. If you’re not in LA, Vinovore may be able to ship straight to you.