A drinker's guide to natural wine in Chicago: the Logan Square bars, the West Town shops, and where to find the good low-intervention stuff across the city.
Chicago has grown one of the most serious natural wine scenes in the Midwest, clustered in Logan Square and West Town but reaching all the way to a Loop café with a river view. Expect [[glou glou]] reds, skin-contact [[orange wine]], [[pét-nat]] by the glass, and shops run by people who taste everything they sell.
Here's where to drink it and where to buy it across the North and West sides.
Natural wine bars
Where to drink a glass and let someone else pick.
A nearly 30-year Logan Square institution built on natural and minimal-intervention wine, with a generous by-the-glass list that leans crunchy and funky.
Order: a funky glass off the rotating list.
A natural wine bar and café in the historic Great Lakes Building with a Chicago River view, pairing low-intervention bottles with chef Marcos Campos' pintxos.
Order: a skin-contact white with the pintxos.
A pioneer of the city's natural wine scene, cozy and dimly lit, pouring a carefully curated low-intervention list next to elevated New American small plates.
Order: a chillable red with the small plates.
A funky Logan Square wine bar from the Scofflaw and Slippery Slope crew, pouring minimal-intervention wine by the glass and bottle.
Order: whatever's open by the glass.
The wine bar attached to Red & White, pouring from the same natural vein as the shop, often bottles you won't find up front.
Order: a by-the-glass surprise from the back list.
Bottle shops
Where to carry something home, and get a real recommendation doing it.
A Logan Square storefront where every bottle is hand-curated, additive-free, and made from organically farmed grapes. As natural-first as shops get.
Ask for: a grower bottle the owners are excited about.
Part wine shop, part restaurant, part market, with a deep bench of natural, organic, and biodynamic bottles from small producers worldwide.
Ask for: a natural bottle and something from the deli case.
More than 250 labels focused on small and natural producers from France, Italy, Spain, Georgia, and the US, with a reputation for approachability.
Ask for: an approachable natural under $25.
Open since 2008 and organic-first, with 500-plus labels from the Loire, Burgundy, and the Rhône alongside off-the-map picks from Slovakia and Austria.
Ask for: a Loire chenin or a natural Beaujolais.
A casual, laid-back bottle shop for stocking up on natural wine, local beer, and specialty bottles, with a friendly wine club and approachable tasting notes.
Ask for: a fun bottle with a good back-label story.
Not only natural wine
Primal started with low-intervention bottles, but the shop runs deeper than that. Alongside the glou glou and pét-nat, we carry classic, appellation-driven wine from the regions that wrote the rules, made by small growers who happen to farm with care.
And for the cellar, there is a serious high-end bench: red Burgundy, Alsace Riesling, Barolo and Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, grower Champagne, and other benchmark bottles worth laying down. Whether you want something easy for a Tuesday or a wine to keep for a decade, it is the same shop.
Common questions
The stuff people actually ask before their first bottle.
What actually counts as natural wine?
Natural wine is farmed organically or biodynamically and made with minimal intervention: native-yeast fermentation, nothing added or stripped out, and little to no added sulfites. It's a spectrum, not a certification. Our natural wine glossary breaks down the terms, from glou glou to pét-nat to amphora.
Which Chicago neighborhood is best for natural wine?
Logan Square is the heart of it, home to Webster's, Outside Voices, and Diversey Wine, with West Town close behind. GoodFunk brings it downtown to the Loop.
What's the difference between natural and classic wine?
Classic wine leans on established regional tradition and technique; natural wine strips winemaking back to organically or biodynamically farmed fruit and minimal cellar intervention. Plenty of great bottles sit in both camps. Primal carries classic and high-end wine alongside the low-intervention range.
Where do Chicago sommeliers buy natural wine?
Diversey Wine and The Noble Grape are the natural-first shops the trade leans on, with Red & White Wines deep on the Loire and Burgundy.
