Imperial Wine co-owners Chad Starret and Clayton Taylor said they have plans to transition their Sugar Land retail wine shop into a wine boutique by early 2025, where the business will serve wine by the glass.

This will follow the theme of their Friday night wine tastings, which feature karaoke, food trucks and lounging near the lake out back.

They said they imagine a space where the city’s diverse community can gather in the open patio behind the store while sharing the natural wine the business specializes in.

What’s different about it?

Natural wine is just “wine made the way it used to be,” Starret said, but it’s not something shoppers can typically get in stores.




“This doesn't exist in Sugar Land. There is nowhere to buy natural wine,” he said. “If you walk into Spec's or Total Wine [& More] or H-E-B, you're going to get some cookie-cutter organic wine. That's a decent start, but that's nowhere near where wine can be.”
Differing from mass-produced and commercialized wines typically found in stores, natural wines are free of additives and are typically made with hand-picked grapes, said the owners. (Asia Armour/Community Impact)
Differing from mass-produced and commercialized wines typically found in stores, natural wines are free of additives and are typically made with hand-picked grapes, the owners said. (Asia Armour/Community Impact)
Taylor said commercialized wines are mass-produced and can add up to 72 different additives—from food coloring to sugars and cultured yeast—to get wine to taste the way the distributor wants them to taste.

Natural wine, in contrast, is made by hand and in small batches, with native yeast for fermentation to avoid chemicals and maintain natural flavors. This is what he wanted his neighbors to experience when they opened Imperial Wine in October 2022, Taylor said.

“This is the way they made wine hundreds of years ago,” Taylor said. “Fermented grape juice, the real representation of this grape in that area, produced by that maker in that year.”
The wine boutique offers a laid back atmosphere for its customers to explore natural wine, owners said. (Asia Armour/Community Impact)
The wine boutique offers a laid back atmosphere for its customers to explore natural wine, owners said. (Asia Armour/Community Impact)
Staying local

Starret and Taylor don’t claim to be wine experts, although they have the experience of owning the shop and have met distributors and makers. They said they take pride in providing a fun and distinctive experience for Sugar Land residents.




“The community that's here is laid back,” Starret said. “A lot of Sugar Land people are big mountain bikers or cyclists. We get a lot of people ... who were drinking beer and are now turning to wines. Our wine bar is definitely not on the pretentious side.”