April 12, 2021

In San Francisco, she became the highest level sommelier for her wine expertise.

In Minneapolis, she and her sister opened a fermentation bar that was featured by GQ, the Star Tribune, Eater Twin Cities and CNN.

Now, the Sioux Falls native is home and opening a downtown wine shop.

“I’m really happy to be back in Sioux Falls,” said Mel Guse, owner of Gist Wine Shop.

“It seems like a place for a great opportunity, and I’ve met a lot of really cool people who have wine interest.”

Guse gradated in 2002 from Washington High School, went to the University of Kansas and landed her first job in public relations in San Francisco.

Not totally sure what she wanted to do for a career, “I got really interested in the food and wine scene in San Francisco – one of the best places to get interested in it,” she said.

That led to a job at a James Beard Award-winning chef’s pizzeria, where she was determined to learn as much as she could about food and wine “and see where it takes me.”

She completed her international sommelier certification up to its highest level in 2009, held wine-related jobs in the San Francisco area and worked with a Michelin-starred chef at the specialty grocery store Bi-Rite Market.

“He did the same (revenue) per square foot in sales as an Apple store,” she said. “That means I got hired doing assistant wine buying and got to learn the cheese mongering side, and it was just such a cool experience. I was very lucky to taste through that. So I got really inspired by that.”

After seven years in a small San Francisco apartment, she and her sister, Ky, who was just finishing graduate school, decided to move to Minneapolis and start a similar wine and cheese tasting concept.

It led to Gyst Fermentation Bar, which opened in 2014 and specialized in all things fermented such as wine, cheese and pickles.

In early 2019, the website The Daily Meal named it one of the top 150 bars in America.

“For many reasons, we decided not to renew our lease,” Guse said.

She had a new baby. Her sister wanted to go back to school. Life led her closer to family in Sioux Falls, where in late 2019 she became the wine buyer for Look’s Marketplace.

She stayed there until recently, when she decided to bring Gyst – with the new spelling Gist – to downtown.

Guse leased the former Sioux Falls Design Center space in the Boyce-Greeley building at 11th Street and Phillips Avenue, where she primarily will curate a wine shop focused on “naturally good wine.”

She plans to carry wine with as much indigenous yeast fermentation as possible, focusing on makers who are transparent and “aren’t altering it with sugars and wood chips. This is as simple as it is: grape juice that has been fermented.”

There will be some counter and window seating.

“The space is awesome,” Guse said. “When I came into it, it’s just a very natural-feeling space with the open brick and ceiling, and I love they have these chalkboards,” she said, adding she plans to use chalk art to build the story of the wines.

“It’s the perfect size,” she continued. “I hope to teach wine classes as we get beyond COVID, and it has great technology with built-in speakers, and I’m going to try and Zoom in winemakers from California and do happy hours, so it should be really fun. I have great visions for the space.”

She also plans to offer pre-packaged charcuterie and potentially expand her food offerings as she goes.

Part of the business model includes offering personalized wine subscriptions, where customers can choose a three- or six-bottle per month offer for curated selections.

“I have a lot of relationships, and I want to have a domestic focus, California and Oregon, because those are the wines I worked with in California – wines that tell a story of the place, the people – along with a selection from France and Italy.”

Guse hopes to open Gist Wine Shop sometime in May.