A Nice Place to Drink: Natural Wine in Downtown Guelph
Two Faces, located downtown Guelph at 40 Wilson Street, is many things. Simply put, it is a bar, owned and operated by the two faces themselves, Meg and Drea. While this is a somewhat adequate description, it certainly does not tell the whole tale. Perhaps Two Faces is better defined as a wine garden – the space itself is brimming with greenery, with chairs and tables scattered throughout the foliage. Amongst these voluminous and comforting plants, the bar’s most prominent feature is front and center: a staggering number of exciting and innovative natural, organic, and biodynamic wines from around the world. Not to mention the array of local, high-quality craft beer and cider on offer, and the no fuss cocktail program to boot.
At Two Faces, you feel amongst the cool crowd, but without the usual baggage – the hip atmosphere is laced with an air of genuine warmth and conviviality, with your inauguration into the world of natural wine being guided with a warm, friendly embrace.
With all this talk of natural wine, perhaps an explanation is due. Natural wine has been gaining popularity over the last few years, with restaurants and wine bars in cities like Toronto and Montreal advocating and promoting wine lists focusing on natural selections. Natural wine is best understood as an approach or philosophy with regard to winemaking as opposed to an official designation or certification. Natural winemakers practice a very hands-off, low intervention approach to winemaking, and have a strict, zero-tolerance policy for pesticide use. This type of winemaking is founded on a holistic approach to the craft, based on the idea that “good wine is made in the vineyard.” These winemakers harness the ecosystem in their vineyards as their primary tool for improving their viniculture. For example, if a wine was lacking in a certain aspect, say nitrogen, a conventional winemaker would add nitrogen-boosting nutrients to the wine itself. This would be in stark contrast to tactics taken by someone practicing natural winemaking methods, who would seek to address the root of the problem by naturally adding nitrogen to the soil, perhaps through the introduction of specific nitrogen-boosting plants to the vineyard.
The final result of the natural approach is an additive free wine, brimming with lively and intriguing flavours. Natural wines are thought to be a truer expression of “terroir” (the composite of factors that effect wine from vine to bottle – climate, weather, soil type, and so on) than anything conventional methods could produce. Certain natural wines really speak for themselves: their funky and interesting aromas and tasting notes might be something you haven’t come across in a wine before. In the same breath, you might have another natural wine that tastes quite similar to a conventional wine of the same varietal. No matter what, the wine is certain to come from a thoughtful and dedicated winemaker, someone who is highly attuned to their vineyard and passionate about producing a clean and pure product that is additive and pesticide free (many people contend that this last point also makes natural wine a relatively “hangover free” pursuit, though I won’t personally guarantee it).
While approaching this whole new world of wine can be intimidating, a feeling which is compounded by the jargon of tasting notes to add to your vocabulary, gently coaxing you into the world of natural wine is perhaps Two Faces best quality. Meg and Drea have been creating their own vernacular, providing tasting notes for all of the wines on offer, which are a beautifully balanced mix of playful and illuminating. On a recent evening, one of the by-the-glass offerings was described as a “cozy French red,” and the Rosato was declared “spooky AF – alive and boisterous.” Perhaps my favourite, though, was the description of a white wine produced in town by ibi wines, which read “pineapples in a beach towel.”
On any given evening this winter, behind the fogged up front windows that bear the increasingly iconic neon red light, you are sure to find new friends, new experiences, and people with a genuine and infectious passion for good drink. We should be counting our blessings, the offerings from Two Faces’ wine list are truly world class, reasonably priced, and found in few other places in the entire province of Ontario. And while purveyors of innovative and even avant-garde wines is a wonderful thing to have here in Guelph, the true importance in Two Faces lies in their approach – genuine and unfussy, informative but not pretentious, and all the while possessing a desire to meaningfully contribute to our community.
As I began writing this, I struggled with defining Two Faces, as it is amorphous in many ways. But therein lies its true beauty: you might walk in on a Thursday evening to dub reggae and a beanie-clad, twenty-something crowd; another evening of the same week might result in an after-dinner crowd of all ages; a Sunday afternoon might find you amongst young families and whirling toddlers. In really pinning things down, perhaps it is best to keep it simple. Two Faces is a place for everyone, and its raison d’être likely lies in the slogan on the front door: “Two Faces - a nice place to drink.”
