Neighborhood wine bar coming to Mountain Brook Village

Wine is fun, Brandon Loper said.

Whether you’re having a drink, attending a tasting or learning more about the processes and origins of different wines, it’s going to be good time. That’s one of the reasons he and business partner Trent Stewart decided to open Golden Age Wine in Mountain Brook Village.

Loper first entered the world of wine while living in San Francisco, and he wrote a blog about coffee and wine and later made a coffee documentary. He tried a wine from Oregon that was dubbed a “natural wine” — there were no chemicals, no fining and no filtering.

“It tasted very fresh, very different,” he said. That taste was a defining moment for him with wine, “and after that I dove in kind of 1,000 percent.”

That was five years ago, not long after Stewart found his way into wine.

“I visited wine country, Napa Valley and Sonoma, in 2005 with my wife,” Stewart said. “It was really just kind of on a whim … and I can’t really say I have that one wine that blew me away, but something about wine culture clicked with me — food and wine, if you will.”

A few years later, he and his wife attended more tastings and traveled to Burgundy, France. That was where he realized he could turn his passion for wine into a professional career.

Stewart later worked as a wine buyer and consultant for the former Western Market for three years, then as a buyer for Grassroots Wine, and during those years he began the Wine and Spirit Education Trust program.

The education program is similar to the pathway to become a sommelier, but it follows a more academic approach, Stewart said, with a lot of tastings involved. Most recently, he’s earned the Level 4 Diploma from WSET, the highest ranked diploma currently available. There are only around 300 masters of wine in the world. 

The pair didn’t know each other until a friend introduced them, and, after meeting over wine, Loper said he knew they would “be fast friends.” They kept in touch as business contacts, but later Stewart presented the idea of partnering on the wine bar.

 “Once he said that, I knew I had my window,” Loper said. 

He didn’t have the “resume experience” to open a wine bar — “Drinking wine a lot doesn’t qualify you for opening a wine business,” he joked — but Stewart brought knowledge as a buyer. And when they heard Western was closing, and its renowned wine section with it, they jumped at the chance to be in Mountain Brook.

Golden Age Wine is set to be both a retail shop and an on-site bar, which “really allows us to give the customer more of an immersive experience,” Stewart said.

The immersive experience will come in handy when customers are looking at and tasting the collection of wines Stewart and Loper want to offer. Having visited many smaller vineyards, they’ve come to love the artisanal, family-owned wine estates.

“We feel like when you’re buying products from those producers, you’re getting a more terroir-driven product,” Stewart said, referring to the environmental factors that impact taste. 

“You can get as hoity toity as you want with that, but it’s something that tastes like where it comes from,” Loper said.

They also feel strongly about low-intervention wines, or those that are naturally made without any chemicals.

At their “neighborhood wine shop,” Loper and Stewart are planning to have about 800 different labels of wine, as well as a cellar with about 100 high-end specialties. Their focus will be on unique wines that aren’t necessarily on the market elsewhere.

“Because we believe those producers deserve to be highlighted,” Loper said. 

They will have a cheese pairing selection and a hand-cranked charcuterie slicer.

In addition to seating in the main area of the store, Stewart said they will have a bigger 15-person community table in the back tasting room to rent out for events, like birthday parties and book clubs. It will work for overflow seating, too, when other tables are full.

Eventually, they want to bring in different professionals to hold educational seminars and events. Stewart is able to teach because of his WSET level, too. They’re passionate about wine and about sharing the stories of the wine and its producer.

“And we think our passion for it will be contagious,” Stewart said. With the restaurants that are nearby, Loper said they’re looking forward to collaborating, too.

“I think this is going to be a really cool community,” he said. 

Golden Age Wine is located at 2828 Culver Road and plans to open mid-June. To learn more or to stay updated through its Wine Club, go to goldenagewine.com.