Big Wine Freaks

«Big Wine Freaks» is a wine bar in Moscow near Krasnopresnenskaya and Barrikadnaya metro stations, at 62 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. It holds one of the city's most notable collections of organic, biodynamic and natural wines — a rare category still hard to find elsewhere. Wines are served by the glass and by the bottle, and the list is split into an everyday selection and a special-occasion one, with worthy old vintages from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhine Valley for those looking for something more. The wine list is curated by sommelier Andrei Larin, who previously worked at Probka and Saxon + Parole. The food is by chef Marat Kalaidzhyan, whose background includes Door 19 and 15 Kitchen + Bar — the menu is concise and built to complement the wine rather than the other way around. The cuisine is European with mixed influences, and the average check runs from 3,000 to 6,000 rubles. The project was launched by the wine trading company RAW — Vladimir Basov and Artem Tskhakaya, with Alexandra Sutormina also involved. The team is behind other well-known venues in Moscow and St. Petersburg: Max's Beef for Money, Beefzavod, "Moroshka for Pushkin," "Na Vina," and Tre Bicchieri. The idea for the bar grew out of the original venue of the same name in St. Petersburg, though the Moscow version develops the concept in its own way.