Minimo Wine Shop & Bar – Erin Coburn

#034 – Today we are speaking with Erin Coburn from Minimo Wine Bar and Shop in Jack London. Minimo focuses on small production, natural wines and ciders. You may have the same questions we had – what is natural wine?

“And natural wine for us means that the farming side has to be organic or biodynamically farmed, so no chemicals in the vineyards at all. And then on the winemaking side, no unnecessary additions or subtraction and the key component there is the fermentation has to be native or wild fermentation. There can’t be cultured yeast and there is minimal amounts of sulfur or none at all. Whereas just by comparison, most conventional wines can have probably up to 40 to 50 different things that you can put in the winemaking process.”

The wines you find at Minimo are not your usual suspects. In fact, Erin thinks there is not a single Merlot or a Zinfandel in the shop. It’s a lot of off the beaten path vineyards and regions and grapes and varietals. There are wines from Morocco, the Canary Islands, Slovenia and Serbia. The California wines come from Contra Costa, Lodi, and Mendocino.

“if you came to us looking for a Napa Valley Chardonnay, you would probably walk out with a ferment from Hungary. So it’s really to get people to explore new things.”

There is no signage on purpose. You have to start a conversation, which allows them to find out what you like or what you don’t like, and then they make recommendations.

Since Minimo is classified as a grocery business, it did not have to shut down during the pandemic. The business survived by delivering wine and hosting virtual events. Erin loves being an Oakland business and is grateful for the support from the local community.

“My gratitude goes to the tremendous support, not only of our customers, but of Oakland and other small businesses. I mean, it’s an amazing network of people who champion one another and share resources freely and are really about making sure that we all succeed together.”

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to find out why Minimo sells cider and NOT beer.