If every bottle of wine has a story, there’s a novel taking shape in Edmonton, where several new wine bars are attracting devotees. It’s not the city’s first flirtation with the trend: wine bars emerged more than a decade ago, only to fade as drinking habits shifted and consumer interest waned. With many of those early spots long closed, today’s newcomers represent a second wave — one buoyed by adventurous drinkers and Alberta’s ever-expanding access to global wines. These bars are built as much around community and hospitality as around the grape.
Take, for instance, Barry Shaughnessy’s establishment Nowhere Wine Bar, open since 2023. The hospitality veteran was inspired by a visit to Montreal’s Le Vin Papillon, an internationally acclaimed bar by the owners of Joe Beef. “I thought it would be pretentious, snooty,” says Shaughnessy, who’d arrived alone during a solo tour of the city’s food scene. “It was exactly the opposite.” He left feeling as though he’d become best friends with the bartender and barstool patrons.
Shaughnessy brings that same convivial atmosphere to Nowhere Bar, a 30-seat nook located in Wîhkwêntôwin. There’s a large, silver tub bursting with chilled bottles on the wooden bar where Shaughnessy spends most of his time. On any given night, he engages with patrons from his perch behind the wood. “The first thing that hits you is the friendliness from Barry and the staff,” says Eric Silvor, a Nowhere regular in his sixties. “He makes a point to get to know you and what wines you like.”
That’s a hallmark of a great wine bar: owners and staff create a relationship with customers. Kelsey Danyluk of Tzin Wine and Tapas, one of Edmonton’s first and most enduring wine bars, says that in 18 years of business, many regular guests have come to feel like kin. The children of customers are now customers themselves. “We’ve never been the flashiest restaurant but we’re built on love and we continue to try and offer that same feeling of intimacy and almost family,” says Danyluk.
Personal connection is implied in the very name of the wine bar created by Dominique Moquin and her husband Joshua Meachem. Coterie opened two years ago in Old Strathcona and references a French term for a small group of people with shared interests or tastes. Designed around a curved counter where patrons can easily chat with the bartender or other sippers, Coterie is soaked in rich shades of teal and emerald, with a glossy tiled backbar that serves as a handsome backdrop for stories, large and small, exchanged within its 22-seat interior. The night I visited Coterie, general manager Kortney Price stopped by our table to ask about our wine preferences and soon learned we had a soft spot for Chardonnay. She quickly steered us toward Prairie Souls — made with Lodi, California grapes but bottled by an Edmontonian who features local artists on the label — one of five individual pours listed that evening on the gilt-framed chalkboard.
That’s another wine bar staple: not just a passionately curated, rotating selection of wine by the bottle or glass, but staff able to meet you where you’re at in your vino education. After all, many if not most servers aren’t trained sommeliers, but they should be conversant enough to recommend the right pour for any palate and approachable enough to encourage curiosity. Danyluk says Tzin’s three-ounce pour gives guests the chance to try different pairings with their food without over-imbibing. If patrons don’t like what they’ve chosen, Tzin will replace it with another of its 20 options for individual servings.
When it comes to food, it’s all about what complements the wine (not the other way around) and what’s possible in their shoe-box spaces. That being said, tiny kitchens are great for creativity. At Nowhere, chef Filliep Lament’s only prep area is behind the bar with an induction burner, a toaster oven and a meat slicer, yet his devilled eggs with herb mayo and salted chilli are topped with a delicate chiffonade of greens that speaks of time and talent. Coterie’s chef Earl Briones makes the most of a high-end convection oven to produce richly caramelized dates wrapped in prosciutto and oozing with brie. Meanwhile, at Tzin, chef Corey McGuire works with a range, grill and flat-top — all crammed into a 90-square-foot sliver of real estate on 104 Street, as though he’s cooking from a kiosk rather than one of Edmonton’s most beloved kitchens.
Such quirks and charms are part of what makes the experience at Edmonton’s best wine bars feel personal, intimate and memorable; they’re places where the story in the glass is only the beginning.
According to Joe Gurba — a well-known importer in the hospitality community — wine is a drinkable art. “The winemaker is an artist who collaborates with nature,” he says. “It’s an art whose medium is taste and smell.” And like art, wine reflects its era, with styles that swing from the classic to the contemporary as palates change. As portfolio director of Edmonton’s Vino Al Vino, Gurba has built a career on predicting, rather than responding to evolving tastes. He shares three wine trends to watch for in 2026.
Australian wine makers are experimenting with a growing list of Italian grape varieties, such as Sangiovese and Nebbiolo that produce a juicy edge without sacrificing balance. It’s an exciting new lens on both Australian terroir and how these varieties can taste, says Gurba. “They seem to show a more sun-kissed and open profile in Aussie hands.”
Recommendation: Unico Zelo, Deliquente and Bondar $30 to $37
Global consumption of white wine has been trending upward for reasons that even Gurba admits aren’t entirely clear. He thinks it comes down to their relative value compared to top reds and shifting tastes toward lower alcohol wines. Whatever the cause, their popularity isn’t slowing. “Italy is responding by amplifying its best examples of white, including those from Campania in the south, grown in acidic, volcanic soils.”
Recommendation: Fattoria la Rivolta and Bosco de Medici $30 to $60
“Bordeaux has been thought of as old and musty,” says Gurba, “but new producers are using biodynamics and different vessels to make fresh, expressive renditions.” This shift is helping introduce a new generation to one of the world’s most storied wine regions, giving young people a place at the Bordeaux table.
Recommendation: Château Pey-Bonhomme-Les-Tours and Château Haut-Grelot $30 to $35
This article appears in the November/December 2025 issue of Edify
