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Tobias
Wren
Sommelier · Natural Wine
He runs the natural class — and a small zine about wine, music, and the people who make both.
Pour. · cohort 14est. 2020
He runs the natural class — and a small zine about wine, music, and the people who make both.
Raised in Crown Heights on his grandfather's homemade dandelion wine, which he describes as “the worst thing I have ever loved.” He never went to wine school. He went to a tiny shop in Paris in 2016, tasted a Foillard Beaujolais out of a paper cup, and rebuilt his life around it.
Tobias has visited 47 of the 60 producers in his book. He can tell you which one keeps a dog named Pinot, which one only answers the phone after 9pm, and which one's 2021 was better than the 2022 nobody talks about.
“Natural wine is not a religion. It is a choice some farmers make. The wine still has to taste good. If it doesn’t, I won’t pour it, no matter how cool the label is.”
He helped a friend smuggle a single bottle home in a carry-on once. They drank it on a fire escape in August. He has spent every harvest season since trying to find the exact light again.
