Chris Malloy
Sauvage Bottle Shop 901 North First Street, #109
Sauvage Bottle Shop is Chris Lingua's wine store inside The Churchill, and it's great. It contains the most thrilling selection of wine and wine-adjacent bottles in town. Lingua sells low-intervention wines, meaning natural-leaning bottles. This is progressive stuff, the opposite of your sleepy industrial cab from Napa. Lingua stocks biodynamic ciders, orange wines from the Puglia avant-garde producer Valentina Passalacqua, and experimental cocktails canned by alums of the groundbreaking Danish restaurant Noma.
The Montecito Bottle Shop 704 West Montecito Avenue
Last fall, The Montecito Bottle Shop opened inside a middle suite in the Wagon Wheel Building in the Melrose District. The wine, beer, and cider shop is right next door to Restaurant Progress, which is convenient since it's run by the same small team. That means it carries the same simple, elegant vibe as its neighbor. Current picks include Florèz Wines Sauvignon Blanc "Shangra-li Mendo Savvy B" 2019, Brand "Wildersatz" 2019, and G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe 2016. Online ordering is available, as is curbside pick-up, but if you can, check out this well-designed shop.