July’s Where to Drink Now: Noble Grape

“I’m no sommelier—I just know good wine,” says Alex Basich, co-owner of the Noble Grape, which opened this past week in Chicago’s Noble Square neighborhood. And it’s with that sensibility that Basich runs his 900 square-foot retail shop and event space in which small-batch, boutique wines share shelf space with local artisan spirits and craft microbrews. Noble Grape is eco-friendly, too: the warm, earth-toned walls are coated with VOC-free paint, the floors are covered in sustainable cork and many of the wines on offer are natural, organic or biodynamic. Situated amid a handful of BYOB restaurants—Spanish, Japanese, Italian—Basich stocks wines (and sakes) to complement the local restaurant fare, and in the coming weeks will offer $2 tricycle delivery service to restaurants within six blocks of the shop. Now that is noble.

802 N. Bishop St., Chicago; 312-846-1204; noblegrape.net