A natural wine bar & bistro in the centre of Haarlem!

Our new favorite wine place Zuid Noord Natuurwijnbar & Bistro, is not only open in the evening (Wednesday–Saturday, 17:00–22:00), but is now open for Friday & Saturday lunch, from 12:00–14:30. Warm seasonal soups, fresh salads, tasty sandwiches and of course the special natural wines, are waiting for you in the light but delicious lunch menu!

Pavle Jovanović from Montenegro, has taken a brave step last June and opened a new Natuurwijnbar & Bistro, at Kleine Houtstraat 105zw in Haarlem, immediately after the loosening of the coronavirus restrictions. Zuid Noord offers a delicious list of Natural Wines from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Italy, as well as tantalising dishes to pair with them, at fair prices. I have finally found my place to be. I am sure after your first visit, you will not stop visiting it either!

Zuid Noord is such a cosy and casual place that there is no time in the day or evening that you cannot go, just as you are. The people that work there – expats themselves, so no Dutch is needed – will immediately make you their friends and explain everything you want to know about the wines and dishes you are tasting. They are also organising brunches and live music afternoons, and of course wine tastings for the more curious wine lovers. Just follow them on Facebook to know when each event is taking place.

Photo by @indebuurthaarlem

What are the natural wines that everyone is talking about lately?

Natural wine, until some years ago, signified a bourgeois taste in certain social circles and on certain menus across the world – but, today, it has become a more everyday trend and demand.

Natural wine is farmed organically and sometimes biodynamically and made without adding or removing anything. That is why the natural wine-making is also good for the environment. Also in the cellar, no additives or processing aids are used, sometimes not even yeast, and ‘intervention’ in the naturally occurring fermentation process is kept to a minimum. As such, neither fining nor (tight) filtration are used. That means, that some natural wines might be a bit cloudy and that is not a bad thing anymore.

Though while natural wine is recently trendy, it is not new: people have been making fermented grape juice without additives for thousands of years.

Inside Zuid Noord Natuurwijnbar & Bistro

Orange is the new red. Orange is the new white. Well, orange is the new wine!

My favourite wine and the absolute 2020 trend is orange wine. And Zuid Noord, has the best orange wines from Slovenia and Croatia, from the world famous wineries of Movia, Kabaj, Klinec, Trapan and Baša. But how is the orange wine made? For sure, it is not made from oranges! It is made from white wine grapes where the grape skins are not removed, as in typical white wine production, and stay in contact with the juice for days or even months. And as they say:

Make sure you’re sitting down when you taste your first orange wine.

This is because these wines are robust and bold, with honeyed aromas of jackfruit, hazelnut, brazil nut, bruised apple, wood, linseed oil, juniper, sourdough and dried orange rind. On the palate, they’re big, dry and even tannic like a red wine with a soft sourness.

So let’s support a new local expat business in the centre of Haarlem, while enjoying the gezellig atmosphere of Zuid Noord and tasting delicious natural wines and mouthwatering slow food.