Jess Moffitt doesn’t mind if you act like you’re in a friend’s living room when you’re at Sol House Wines, her new natural wine store that recently opened in Brightleaf Square.
“I want it to feel laid back and welcoming and like you’re popping over to a friend’s house who knows a lot about wine,” she said of the vibes she wants for the new space, which serves as both a shop and a bar. I personally don’t know anyone who has over 150 different types of wine at their house, but it sounds like a great place to visit.
Moffitt moved to Durham from New York City two years ago with her husband. At the time, she was still working remotely as a merch designer for musicians, but she’d gotten the itch to open a natural wine store and was anxious to see if she could make her dream a reality in Bull City.
After being a regular on the NYC foodie circuit, Moffitt fell in love with natural wines after realizing that all of the restaurants she loved the most served them.
“I started doing wine education in New York,” she said, making it up to the advanced WSET Level Three certification level, “and that’s when the wheels started turning, and I started to think I wanted to switch industries and focus on [natural wine] 100% of the time.”
While still living in New York, Moffitt began picking up shifts at a wine store, confirming her passion for opening her own store. Upon moving to Durham and settling into her new city, she went all in on her dream, opening Sol House Wines on November 12.
Defining what “natural wine” means can be somewhat open to interpretation, Moffitt said, but at Sol House Wines, you’ll find only organic or biodynamically farmed wines where there’s been minimal intervention during the wine-making process. That means none of the wines have any additives like additional yeast, sugar, sulfites, or dyes.
I’ve heard that sulfites in wine contribute to hangovers, so I got really excited at this point in the interview, but Moffitt laughed when I asked her if drinking the wine from Sol House will mean no groggy mornings.
“It is a lower rate of hangover [to drink natural wine],” she said, “but I also say to drink water and make sure you’re eating, so it’s not 100% [that you won’t have one].”
Sol House will have nine or so options by the glass that will change biweekly, and about 160 different options to purchase. Moffitt tasted over 400 wines to make the initial selection and created an “insane” spreadsheet to try to balance everything from wine regions and varietals to price points.
“The sweet spot for most wines [in the store] is between $20 and $30,” she said, “but we actually have a pretty decent selection of sub-$20 bottles, as that was important to me to have.”
The shop has a few bar snacks like olives, tinned fish, and almonds on offer, but customers are also welcome to BYO food. You’ll find thirty seats inside as well as a few patio tables and chairs outside, so grab a few dips from recently Michelin-recommended Nikos next door, or a pizza from Emmy Squared around the corner, and have Moffitt help you pair a wine to go with.
Sol House is also part of the Bullpen Social District, so once their branded cups come in, visitors also have the option to grab a glass of wine and meander around.
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