Natural wines are the fun little sister of the drinking world — they’re fresh and lively, often with funky notes and bright labels. If you love them, you love them. Oscar Salinas, Adam Jimenez, and August Marron, Chicago natives who met while students at DePaul, love them so much that in May they launched Los Naturales, a wine shop and bar open weekend afternoons in Pilsen’s Caminos de Michoacan, a bar owned by Jimenez’s family. Why natural wine? For the trio, it’s about the artistry of the wines and caring for the land. “It reminds me of my family’s small town in Mexico, where people live off the land,” Jimenez says. “I see how a small vineyard in France relates to my Mexican roots.”
On a recent Sunday, the bar was filled with folks shooting pool, sipping micheladas, and pouring wine into plastic cups. Two shelves by the entrance were lined with more than two dozen wines, like Ad Vinum Bim, an organic French red blend, and Le Coste Bianchetto, a zesty, herbal Italian orange wine. Pick one, and it’ll come chilling in a white bucket. “We’re providing good wines to Pilsen and the South Side,” Salinas says. “We get the short end of the stick on a lot of cool things. I want it to be approachable: As long as you have an interest in drinking something good, we’re open arms.”
Up next: more events, a club, collaborations, and merch. “We’re excited to keep it moving, but we want to remain true to where we are,” Marron says. “There’s a magic to natural wine that gets me every time.” 1659 W. Cullerton St., Pilsen