The Blue Mountains area has welcomed its first natural wine bar and bottle shop with the opening of Frankie & Mo’s in Blackheath this week.

Father and son winemaking duo Bob and Tom Colman worked for upwards of a year to open the intimate, 25-seat venue in a heritage shop, across the road from hatted restaurant Ates.

Tom Colman tells Good Food it’s a warm, inviting venue where the wine-curious can try hard-to-find drops at affordable prices, while snacking on share plates fromformer Golden Gully chef Em Evans.

“Nothing like this exists up here,” Colman says, explaining how he was influenced by the wine bars of Europe where by-the-glass menus change daily, often at the whims of curious customers.

“We can see there’s a demand now. The demographic has changed in the mountains, and lots of Sydney people have moved here.

“Between us, Ates, and [Mexican restaurant and cocktail bar] Zoe’s, we’re creating a little [dining] precinct in Blackheath, a destination.”

The brick building, formerly an art gallery, contains three small rooms filled with sunlight, plants and vintage furniture.

Evans sources local produce for her tight, vegetable-focused menu. Lighter dishes include a plant-based carrot lox blini with cashew cream cheese ($12) and swordfish crudo with cucumber saffron vinaigrette ($18). On the heartier side, there’s wild mushroom gnocchi ($24) and a rack of lamb with parsnip puree and chimichurri ($27).

Frankie & Mo’s will exclusively stock organic and biodynamic wines, beers, spirits and non-alcoholic adult beverages. During the day, it will also function as the cellar door for Bob and Tom’s natural wine label Frankly, a wine made by Bob.

“We want to create a safe space for people to explore wines they probably wouldn’t have a chance to elsewhere,” Colman says. He hopes the purchasing process will be friendlier and more conversational than people may be accustomed to at city wine bars.

“The wine list will be forever changing and exciting.”

Customers will be able to buy a bottle for takeaway, then drink it at the bar for just $25 corkage.

“We’re trying to keep the wine as affordable as possible,” says Colman.

“In a normal restaurant you’re looking at paying around four times the price of what the restaurant is buying it at, which makes many of these sorts of wines unreachable for the average person.”

Colman, who studied winemaking in Adelaide before returning to the Blue Mountains, is a passionate advocate for natural wine: wild fermented, hand harvested and no filtering or refining.

“We feel like [natural wine] actually shows the personality of the winemakers and [gives] a sense of place, or terroir,” Colman says.

“It’s the future.”