The Daughter: A Natural Wine Haven in Davisville Village

The adage ‘nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished’ holds true for Marissa Goldstein. In November 2022, she opened natural wine haven The Daughter, a passion project five years in the making. Here, both “natty” and general wine lovers can luxuriate in an exquisite space where the colourful bottles take on a starring role along a full wall of brushed white-oak shelves with stained black-oak cubbies below.

A series of tree stumps of varying heights and shapes that display wines and flora welcome you to The Daughter. “The design is a contemporary response and reflection of the wine itself,” says architect Andria Fong.

The Daughter is both a retail shop and a wine bar. In summer, guests can enjoy nature’s best on the patio. Situated at the corner of Bayview Avenue and Belsize Drive,the Midtown jewel is flooded with sunlight by day, and as dusk falls, the dimly lit venue transforms into an intimate, romantic setting, perfect for date nights and free-flowing conversation.

“I wanted to create an experience for people to come somewhere and be in a beautiful environment while drinking beautiful wines that have purpose,” says Goldstein, a former lawyer who later went to culinary school and fell in love with natural wines. The Daughter’s wine bar and shop offers a full spectrum of flavour profiles from both Old and New World varietals. “We worked on curating a collection that is approachable to people who have never had natural wine before.” The seasonally relevant menu of shareable snack foods (a special shoutout to the challah with whipped ricotta and hot honey), sandwiches and salads complement the impressive wine list.

The Daughter owner Marissa Goldstein (left) and architect Andria Fong.

Architect Andria Fong of YY Architecture Studio took her design cue from Goldstein’s description of natural wine itself. Words like: “unadulterated, stripped of pretense, free of additives, beautiful, clean,” served as a critical reminder throughout the entire design process.

“I immediately thought of a mix between a jewel box and a library where the wines could be treated as desirable objects on display,” says Fong. “It was important to me to contrast the glossy colourful bottles with a muted colour palette and a lot of natural texture.”

Another key design element at The Daughter is one Goldstein stumbled upon during one of many pandemic walks with her husband. “I became enamoured with the facade on a house, a crusted stone, which came three feet off of the home,” says Goldstein. “I knew I wanted this in my space.” When she ultimately met with Fong to discuss the design concept, Fong recognized the Rosedale house as one she had designed herself!

Discreetly tucked behind the streamlined fin wall lies a cozy space for private gatherings.

“It is a match made in heaven,” says Goldstein. Fong added the natural crust-faced limestone feature in a niche at the front as well as on the bar, an ode to their fateful meeting. “The prominence and weight of the natural crust stone bar filled with wondrous fossils alludes to the minerality found in wines, and is designed to appear as an extruded block from the complex soils of a vineyard,” says Fong.

The private lounge is a colourful, eclectic room with vintage furniture and fixtures hand-picked by Goldstein.

Hand-trowelled Venetian plaster on walls and micro-cement on the floors add texture, while capturing the light in interesting ways. “Vertical wood fins guide customers through the space, and also conceal storage, the security gate, and the door to the private lounge,” says Fong. A complete departure from the wine bar aesthetic, “the concealed door within the curved fin wall helps with the surprise inside,” says Fong. As for naming The Daughter, Goldstein says, “I wanted a name that was personal, but also an ode to the wonderful and amazing women in my life – something familiar and familial.” THEDAUGHTER.CA; YY-AS.COM

The Daughter, Bayview Ave

Natural Wines 101

If you believe wines are made in the vineyard, not in the cellar, then you are already part of the natural wine movement. A new term for an old way of vinification plays a key role in the fight against climate change: Regenerative agriculture aims to rebuild soil strength and fertility through mimicking natural ecosystems. The technical intervention in conventional wine, in the form of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic chemicals with up to 70+ additives is no friend to the environment, contributing to C02 emissions, as well as being purported as a key culprit in hangovers. To boot, there is often less sugar and alcohol, and the flavours in natural wine are said to be stronger, more complex, and a lot purer than conventional wine.

Natural Wine, at The Daughter