“These young guys, they’re making wine with no rules. They’re breaking every rule they can, in a rebellious way. I love it. That’s what this bar is about.”
Tunstall nonchalantly wields a few bottles from the bar to our table. He has a comforting confidence about him, a true host. As the first glass is being poured, I come right out and ask: Where does one start? “It’s something that hits you. We call it the wine bug,” he says. “That one bottle of wine that totally affects [your] life.” For Tunstall, this was at age 24 in a smallstaff San Francisco restaurant where it was not uncommon for a server to sample 15 to 20 wines a night. While uncorking a bottle of Mount Mary’s Quintet, an Australian red wine, he was offered a taste by the table. After the three-hour meal, he was offered a second taste. “To see how that wine had changed, I realized this was a living, breathing organism. It has a lifespan.”