It wasn’t a straight path that brought Donna Rossiter into the world of natural white wines. A circuitous route carried her out of London in 2008, where she operated in marketing for close to a decade, then to India, where she led a yoga-centric lifestyle. Next she landed in Bali, where she ran a yoga studio and clothing line with her partner. Ultimately she wound up in the Bay Location, where she fell head over heels into natural wine and she hasn’t come up for air because. “I was looking for something in red wine that I simply was never ever finding up until I began drinking natural white wine,” Rossiter states.
The deep interest that led her throughout the world pursuing a career in yoga now fuels her growing natural white wine company, Wild Things White wine, which outgrew a wine club she started for pals throughout the pandemic. Actually, all Rossiter wished to do was share her love of white wine with others, but as word of mouth spread, she started including a growing number of customers. Eventually ended up being a correct organization, with Rossiter selling natural wine online and personally shuttling bottles to houses throughout the East Bay. She officially started the online white wine shop with a good friend who became part of the white wine club, but when she needed to drop out as the world started opening back up, Rossiter took over and grew business even more.
Nancy Rubin Buying white wine from Rossiter belongs to asking your close, the majority of speculative, buddy for a suggestion. Rather than tangling with a bigger, faceless, corporation and the maze of customer service at a larger red wine seller, Rossiter is often behind the keyboard (or texts and DMs on Instagram) interacting with customers and following up with questions on how they liked their purchases, in order to direct them to their next white wine discovery. “The white wines that you discover in natural white wine stores or online natural wine shops or natural white wine clubs, they don’t fall under those classic classifications of white wine,” Rossiter states. “So even if you do have a certification or you’re a sommelier, or you understand everything about all the various grades and all the different areas and all the various designs of white wine, this is going to be different.”
Through buddies in the wine business, including one at Jenny & & Francois Selections in New York City, Rossiter has worked to focus her individual style of white wine buying and recommending. In her online store, you’ll find a selection of red wines: regional selections from Richmond’s Purity Wine or Somerset’s La Clarine Farm and Jolie-Laide in Sebastopol. Others come from much further afield, such as Pheasant’s Tears Winery in Georgia or Matic White Wines in Slovenia. She has an admitted soft spot for Italian white wines, picked up from a buddy whose household would crush grapes from Southern Italy and turn it into white wine in their North London basement. “That’s pretty much as natural as wine can get simply red wine that’s made in somebody’s basement,” she says. She typically has Italian white wines from Collecapretta, Frank Cornelissen, Fongolli, Meinklang Wine from Austria, and Raimones White Wine from Spain.
In the spirit of continuing to share her love of red wine, Rossiter has actually taken to conducting white wine tastings for groups, bringing a choice of white wines to people’s houses and leading them through a directed tour. With each order or wine subscription, she’ll offer tasting notes and background on the winemakers, along with some food pairing ideas to boost the white wine drinking experience– just another personal touch Rossiter contributes to her white wine shop. “What I enjoy is, I love curating wine for people, I love building connections,” Rossiter states. “It’s a conversation.”
Find Wild Things White wine by means of the online shop or @wildthingswine on Instagram.