TASTEMAKERS
A weekly wine tasting. Four small-batch, low-intervention bottles, all made by women, poured every Thursday.
- When
- Thursdays
- Time
- 5:30–7
- Per Person
- $10
- Age
- 21+
Four bottles, one host,
no gatekeeping.
Most wine tastings assume you already know something. TASTE MAKERS does not. It is ninety unhurried minutes built around four bottles and the person who knows them best. That might be an importer, a distributor, or sometimes the winemaker herself, walking the room through what is in the glass and why it tastes the way it does.
Every edition is numbered, because every edition is genuinely different. New host, new lineup, new corner of the wine world. Regulars come straight from work. Neighbors walk over from the BeltLine. Clients book a Thursday afternoon appointment on purpose so the timing lines up.
Ten dollars gets you all four pours. You need to be 21 or over with a photo ID, and that is the only hard rule. RSVP is preferred through the link in our Instagram bio, @colmadoatl, since the room is small on purpose, but walk-ins are always welcome.
Doors at 5:30
Come in off Highland Ave, find Suite 104, get a glass in your hand. Fresh bouquets are displayed throughout the space, so the room already looks like something before anyone pours.
Meet the Host
Whoever brought the wine introduces it: who made it, where, and what they deliberately did not do to it. This is the part people tell us they came back for.
Different Wines Weekly
A new lineup every Thursday as we taste our way through the shop, bottle by bottle. Come three weeks in a row and that is twelve different wines. Ask the host anything as you go.
Take a Bottle & a Bouquet
Everything poured is on the shelf that night, and the flowers are right there too. Small batch means quantities are limited, so if one of the four is the one, it leaves with you.
$10 per person · 21+ with photo ID · RSVP preferred, walk-ins welcome
RSVP at the link in our Instagram bioSmall Batch
A few hundred cases, not a few million. It is the honest reason our shelf changes week to week, and the reason regulars buy two. When a bottle is gone here, it is usually gone.
Low Intervention
The winemaker stayed out of the way. Native yeasts instead of commercial ones, little or no fining and filtering, minimal added sulfur, nothing corrected in a lab that could be handled in the vineyard.
All Women
Every bottle is made by a female producer. Women make a small share of the world's wine and own an even smaller share of the estates, so buying this way means looking harder and further.
The Wine Shop
Colmado is Spanish for abundance, and in a lot of neighborhoods it is also the corner shop where you find the thing you actually need. Ours is a natural wine shop in Old Fourth Ward with one editing rule applied to every bottle: small batch, low intervention, made by a woman.
It is a narrow shelf by design, which means we hunt further, buy in smaller quantities, and turn it over more often. It also means you will find bottles here that are not on a shelf anywhere else in Atlanta.
No appointment needed, no purchase minimum. Walk in during shop hours and browse on your own, or ask us anything. There are no wrong questions here.
How to read a wine shelf
The vocabulary is the only intimidating part of natural wine, and it takes about four minutes to learn.
- Natural
- Organically or biodynamically farmed grapes, fermented with wild yeast, bottled with minimal or no added sulfites. An approach, not a legal category, which is why who you buy from matters.
- Pét-Nat
- Pétillant naturel. Bottled before fermentation finishes, so the bubbles are the wine's own. Cloudy, low pressure, a little unpredictable. The most fun bottle to bring to a party.
- Skin Contact
- White grapes left on their skins the way reds are. Comes out amber, tastes like tea and stone fruit and salt, and holds up to food that usually defeats white wine.
- Glou-Glou
- Light, juicy, low-tannin, faintly chillable red. The French onomatopoeia for a bottle emptying quickly. No decanting, no occasion required.
- Unfiltered
- Cloudiness means the wine was not stripped on its way into the bottle. Stand it upright a day before you open it if it bothers you. Most people stop noticing.
- Biodynamic
- Organic farming plus a whole-vineyard philosophy: compost, cover crops, timing worked around the calendar. Stricter than organic, and you taste the site more clearly for it.
Questions
How much is the TASTE MAKERS wine tasting?
$10 per person for all four pours. RSVP is preferred through the link in our Instagram bio, @colmadoatl, but you are welcome to walk in.
Do I need to RSVP, or can I walk in?
Walk-ins are always welcome. We do prefer an RSVP, through the link in our Instagram bio, @colmadoatl, which changes each week. It helps us pour the right amount and keeps the room at a size where the host can actually talk to everyone.
What time does the tasting start and end?
5:30pm to 7:00pm every Thursday at 655 Highland Ave NE, Suite 104, in Old Fourth Ward. Come at 5:30 if you want the full walk-through from the week's host.
Is there an age requirement?
Yes, 21 and over with a valid photo ID. No exceptions, including for anyone not drinking.
Do I need to know anything about wine?
No. Most people who come are curious rather than expert, and the whole format is built around explaining things out loud. Questions are the point.
Can I buy the wines I taste?
Every bottle poured is available on the shelf that night. Small batch means quantities are limited, so if you love one, take it home.
Can I shop for wine without coming to a tasting?
Yes. The wine shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm, and until 7pm on Thursdays for the tasting. No appointment, no purchase minimum.
What makes your wine selection different?
Every bottle is small batch, low intervention, and made by a woman producer, sourced from women working in vineyards all over the world. There are a few wine guidebooks around the shop to walk you through them.
Can I get my hair done and go to the tasting?
People do it every week. Colmado is a non-toxic, no-tipping hair salon as well as a wine shop. Book a Thursday afternoon appointment, browse the shelf while your color processes, then stay for the 5:30 pour.
Where are you, and is there parking?
655 Highland Ave NE, Suite 104, in Old Fourth Ward, close to Krog Street Market and the BeltLine Eastside Trail. There are several free lots and free street parking nearby. That said, this is a tasting, so we would rather you bike, walk, or take a ride share.
Getting Here
Several free lots and free street parking nearby. Since this is a tasting, we would rather you bike, walk, or take a ride share. Minutes from Krog Street Market and the BeltLine Eastside Trail.
Pull up
a glass.
Four wines, a host who knows them, ten dollars. Each week's lineup goes up on Instagram along with the RSVP link, so that is the place to find out what we are pouring and what just landed on the shelf.
Walk-ins welcome · 21+ with photo ID