If you talk to D.C. Looney about wine, you might hear him describe products of a non-natural origin as โspoofilated crap.โ He may talk about the production of natural wine as โalchemical and transcending,โ or discuss how the โancient spirit of this magical beverageโ pulled him in to the world he now inhabits.ย The Punchdown, the Downtown Oakland natural wine bar he owns with his wife, Lisa Costa, is beneath its calm interior the physical embodiment of Looneyโs crackling energy and enthusiasm for a product he dearly loves.
He and the staff of The Punchdown are not simply natural wine salespeople, they are enthusiasts and educators, ardent fans of the strange and wonderful flavors a glass, or bottle, of natural wine can provide. In The Bay Area they are, with a small selection of other shops, the carriers of the natural wine torch, the light in the darkness of an area renowned for its adherence to conventional wine.
Looney comes from a background in conventional wine, honing his focus on what natural wine is through years of working at wineries and getting a Masters in Science in Wine Management at OIV.
โI couldnโt believe how seriously some of the people took wine,โ Looney says. โThey pretty much took the fun out of it.โ After working through four harvests at various wineries in Northern Californiaโs hallowed wine countryโwhere he and Costa metโLooney moved to San Francisco and started working at wine shops, trying to excavate what natural wine was and what it meant to them.
โWe put it together that there is no real definition of โnatural wine,’โ he says, โso we took it upon ourselves to define it based on our experiences.โ The original Punchdown opened in 2009 with Looney and Costaโs thoughts on the most important parts of the โnatural wine processโ outlined on the back of their menus.
Today, the second iteration of the warm-toned, high-ceilinged shop sits dead-center on the main stretch of Downtown Oakland, a calming, relaxed space for natural wine aficionados and newbies alike to sample and learn about the increasingly wider range of natural offerings.
โWe take our selections of wine very seriously,โ Looney says, โand we focus on educating our patrons about the grapes, regions, growers, styles, etc.โ He and Costa mix their studious knowledge of wineโCosta is a certified sommelierโalong with being โnatty and honestโ about the beverages theyโre pouring. โOur tastes have evolved to actually crave the wilder, more โrawโ and fermented flavors in wine,โ Looney says. โWe only pour things we drink.โ
Which, as it turns out, is a wide variety of offerings. The Punchdown offers 30 different by-the-glass wines, from a wide range of regions and styles.
Of the shopโs go-to style of wines, Looney explains: โglou-glou chilled reds, a core of selections from the Loire Valley, wines from the Republic of Georgia, orange wines, Jura wines, wine made in clay pots buried in the ground, and some local stuff,โ but adds that, really, whatever’s exciting in the moment makes the menu. And itโs always changing.
Of course, all wine served at The Punchdown has to be natural, with the menu highlighting the most โnattyโ of its selections with a รธรธ. But, Looney wants The Punchdown to be a place for anyone interested in trying and learning about natural wine, so the menu is aimed to both push boundaries and include lower budget options for those less familiar to the natural wine world.
At the heart of The Punchdown is their retail sales room, or โcool room,โ in Looney parlance. โWe are kind of obsessed with keeping it cellar temp,โ he says. โProper temperature acts like a preservative, so when you have fragile living wines, itโs good to keep them on the cooler side.โ The room’s 55 degree thermostat also allows them to offer rarer wines for longer periods of time then their Bay Area natural wine cohorts likeย Ruby,ย Terroir, andย Ordinaire. โItโs nice to have the option to lay down a wine for a few months,โ Looney says, โand then bring it out after the other wine shops have already crushed through all of their allocations of it.โ
The retail room isnโt huge, so Looney and Costa are forced to be extra selective in terms of what they stock. Aside from a few standbys the owners always like to have on hand, thereโs no strict set of rules for what they stock. Looney explains that they tend more towards โeverydayโ priced wines because, โwe like to drink a lot of wines and Iโd rather sell a few bottles to take home than just one.โ The curation of their cellar is what Looney describes as his โskilled trade.โ
The road for Looney and Costa hasnโt always been an easy one. โGoing the โnatural wineโ route was certainly not the easy route to do a wine business,โ Looney says. โMaybe thatโs the reason we were drawn to it.โ
He, Costa, and The Punchdown staff donโt sell natural wines because itโs easy, but because itโs what they believe in. Looney is excited for the future of natural wine, and excited that people are enthusiastic and ready to sample, and learn, about a product he truly believes in.
โAll I know is what happened to us,โ Looney says. โOnce you go natty and you learn the taste and energy and let it take hold, there is no going back to drinking conventional wine. Itโs as simple as that.โ
Noah Sandersย (@sandersnoah) is a contributor based in San Francisco. His writing can be found in SF Weekly, Side One Track One, andย The Bold Italic. This is Noah Sanders’ first feature for Sprudge Wine.