Pet nat and tacos? Yeah, we're in.
Downtown / Hip Strip · Missoula · Mexican-inspired brewpub fare and craft beer · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 13, 2026
RagingWine reviewed GILD Brewing’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into a brewpub in Montana and finding Oyster River Morphos Pet Nat and Jolie-Laide on the wine list is not something we expected. GILD's wine program is small — just 15 labels — but whoever built it was clearly paying attention to something beyond house Chardonnay. That alone earns a second look.
The list pulls from California, Washington, Italy, and Oregon, with a genuine lean toward natural and low-intervention options alongside the usual crowd-pleasers. You get the Jolie-Laide Glou d'Etat and the Folicello II Bianco Pet Nat sitting next to Prophecy Sauvignon Blanc, which tells you this list is serving two masters. The Bosco del Merlo Bricola Chardonnay and Villa Wolf Pinot Blanc add some interesting Old World dimension. There are gaps — no reds that excite us much, and Pinot Noir fans are getting Prophecy, which is fine for a Tuesday but not a destination pour.
All 15 bottles are available by the glass, which is straightforward and customer-friendly. Pricing runs $8.50 to $10 a pour, which looks approachable until you do the math on the retail markups — several bottles land in the 150–200% range. The pet nat and natural wine options by the glass are legitimately rare for a Montana brewpub, and that's worth acknowledging.
Gruet Brut — $9.50/glass
Gruet is one of the most consistent value sparkling wines in the country — New Mexico's little secret. At $9.50 a glass in a taco joint, you're doing fine. It's festive, it's crisp, and it makes the elote taste better.
Jolie-Laide Glou d'Etat
Most people ordering wine at a brewpub aren't reaching for a Jolie-Laide Carignan-Trousseau blend from Mendocino. Their loss. This is a genuinely interesting natural red with the kind of energy that actually works with spiced barbacoa — and it's the kind of bottle that signals someone at GILD has taste.
Prophecy Pinot Noir
At a 209% markup on a $10.99 retail bottle, this is the most egregious value play on the list. It's a grocery store wine dressed up in a restaurant price tag. Pass on this and put the $8.50 toward a second beer or upgrade to the Jolie-Laide.
Oyster River Morphos Pet Nat + Elote
The Morphos Pet Nat is bright, textured, and has enough funk to hold its own against charred corn, cotija, and chile. The effervescence cuts through the richness of the crema while the natural wine character mirrors the smoke from the grill. It's an unexpectedly great pairing hiding inside a casual taco order.
🎲 The Bottom Line
GILD is a brewpub that accidentally built a genuinely interesting wine list, and we respect the audacity. The markups on the mainstream bottles are hard to defend, but the natural wine picks — especially the pet nats and the Jolie-Laide — make this worth a detour for wine drinkers who thought Missoula's craft scene was beer-only.
South Missoula · Missoula · American / Chain
Applebee's Missoula isn't a destination for wine — it's a destination for Boneless Wings and a cold domestic beer, and there's zero shame in that. If wine is a priority, order a cocktail and save the bottle for somewhere that cares.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Missoula · Breakfast and Diner-Style American
The Shack is worth visiting for the food and the Missoula nostalgia — but the wine list is two bottles deep and priced like it knows you have no other options. Order coffee, order juice, order whatever they're putting in the Vodka Fettuccine, and save the wine drinking for somewhere that's actually trying.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
MIA
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Missoula · New American / Global
Red Bird is the best wine option in Missoula by a comfortable margin, and the curation is genuinely impressive for its size and location. The markups are uneven enough to require some navigation, but if you stick to the Cristom and the Italian picks, you'll drink well without feeling robbed.
Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Unknown · Missoula · French / European
The Pearl Café is doing something genuinely unusual — running a thoughtful, fairly priced wine program in a mountain city where most restaurants would coast on a generic list and nobody would complain. Send your wine-curious friends here without apology; just steer them away from the Ste. Michelle.
Solid Range
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Missoula · Sushi, Japanese
SakeTome is a Wild Card: a lively downtown sushi spot with a mostly safe wine list that hides genuine Oregon ambition behind a wall of crowd-pleasers. Come for the rolls, order the Meiomi by the glass or splurge on Walter Scott if it's available — just skip the Priorat.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Acceptable
South Higgins · Missoula · Italian
Ciao Mambo isn't a destination wine list, but it's honest, fairly priced, and doesn't embarrass itself — which puts it ahead of most Italian spots its size. Send a friend here for dinner and point them toward the Planeta or the Torrontés; they'll thank you.
Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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