Red, white, sparkling or still, Chicago can be a wine-y city. Wine might have a snobby association, but there are plenty of attitude-free places in Chicago where you can learn, taste, explore and buy.
Chicago wine enthusiast Steve Maynard says there are benefits to learning about wine. “It’s fun, it’s social, you learn things, you enrich your lives,” he says.
Tasting
Sip and spit your way to knowledge
Attending a wine tasting can be helpful to new and experienced wine drinkers alike. For an entrance fee, tasters can sample dozens of wines and be spared from buying bottles they might not enjoy.
Alex Mendoza, 31, of Chicago has been attending tastings with friends for several years. “We realized we didn’t know anything about wine,” he says. “There we were, mid-twentysomethings, and we knew nothing about wine.”
At a recent tasting at Binny’s Beverage Depot at 213 W. Grand Ave., Mendoza and his friends moved between four tables displaying 36 wines. Some people at the tasting took notes on a wine list provided by the store. Some people drank the wine, and others only tasted and spit it into a bucket.
Jim Bube, 23, of Chicago usually spits after tasting.
“For awhile, I was coming to these things and drinking,” he says. “After a while I realized I was here to learn so I spit it out.”
Wine tastings hosted by stores are a bit more relaxed, and people can sample in any order they choose. Scott McDonald, 34, of Chicago has gone to restaurant and store tastings and says a restaurant event is more structured.
“The restaurants generally have somebody from the winery leading the discussion and you’ll go through the wines in a set order,” he says.
Clubs
Bring a bottle–and leave egos at home
Chicago photographer Mel Hill wanted to join a wine club, so he started his own four years ago. He met his wife through the group, and the couple now have a son and a wine club called Grape Lakes Wine Appreciation Guild.
“It’s mostly about being friends,” Hill says.
The 15 Grape Lakes members host events in their homes or sometimes meet at restaurants. Members bring a bottle of wine to share with the group, and the events have themes such as Italian Wines or Wines That Don’t Suck.
Hill says his group has no ego, and no one judges whether another member’s wine was good enough to bring.
“The hard part about wine groups is finding like-minded people,” he says.
Another wine club challenge is finding one that welcomes strangers. “It’s harder to invite people you don’t know into your home,” he says.
Wine enthusiasts looking for a private club might do best to form their own, Hill says. He recommends attending area tastings and getting to know the other people in attendance.
National club Wine Brats has a Chicago chapter of 2,700 members and says anyone is welcome to join or attend an event. About 75 people attend each event, and executive director Steve Richardson says some of the members have met at events and formed their own private clubs. The Wine Brats lists its events online at www.winebrats.org.
Classes
Finally, homework that’s fun to do
Before signing up for wine classes at Bin 36 (339 N. Dearborn St.), Lynn Broaddus says pretty labels used to be her reasons for buying wine. Cute grapes or cool colors were the selling point, but Broaddus says Bin School taught her the right way to buy wine.
The classes ($36 per class) are educational yet laid-back. The students are led by an instructor in smelling, tasting and learning about eight red and white wines.
“We didn’t feel bad about asking any silly questions at all,” Broaddus says. (For more on Bin 36, call 312-755-9463.)
Like Bin School, wine classes can be an ongoing series or one-time event. The Chicago Wine School (2001 S. Halsted Ave.) offers once-a-week classes for five weeks. Courses are divided into basic, intermediate and advanced levels and range from $160 to $325.
Seminars such as The Basics of Wine are one-night events and range from $55 to $65 a person. www.wineschool.com
Webster’s Wine Bar (1480 W. Webster Ave.) has a four-week introduction class. For $120, students can learn about tasting, wine language and food pairings. 773-868-0608.
Buying
The last step: Getting something you’ll like
Picking a wine can be intimidating, and there’s always fear that asking questions might lead to snickering. But there are stores in Chicago where help is on hand, and there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
Sam’s Wine & Spirits (1720 N. Marcey St.) has wine specialists on staff who aren’t afraid to recommend a bottle that costs less than $10.
A help desk is clearly marked, and it’s not uncommon to see the specialists in burgundy aprons helping customers navigate the store’s 10,000 wines.
If you’re not ready to commit to a wine you haven’t tasted, Randolph Wine Cellar (1415 W. Randolph St.) has a separate wine bar where you can buy a glass or taste. All the wines at The Tasting Room are sold at Randolph Wine Cellar and six sommeliers on staff can recommend or select a bottle based on your tastes.
Help also is available at the House of Glunz (1206 N. Wells St.). The store boasts a smaller selection where every wine has been tasted by the store manager. And the staff also can recommend wines from personal experience.
An expert
Don’t be fooled by her age
As the host of “Check, Please!” on WTTW, Alpana Singh, 27, moderates as three guest diners recommend a local restaurant and critique each other’s pick. The show has a strong following, and Singh says as many as 300,000 viewers tune in each week.
Singh’s notoriety in the wine world goes beyond hosting a TV show, however. She is the youngest master sommelier in the world and only one of 11 female master sommeliers in the U.S.
A Chicagoan for the last four years, Singh says “Chicago chose me” when she was invited to work at Everest restaurant, where she helps diners select the perfect bottle of wine.
Almost a quarter of the 58 American master sommeliers live in Singh’s native California, but she says she enjoys the open-minded attitude Chicagoans have toward wine.
“The wine drinkers in Chicago are much more aware of a global aspect of wine because we’re so far removed from major wine regions,” she says.
Chicago may be void of grape vines, but Singh says the many wine bars and retail stores are a drinker’s paradise.
“I think most people are curious as to how they can learn more about wine,” she says. “Experiment with flights; don’t get stuck on your favorite.”
What we’re drinking
Americans drank 210 million cases of wine in 2002, up from 135 million in 1991, according to a 2003 study by the publisher of The Wine Spectator.
During that time period, red wine consumption increased from 16 percent of the market to 43 percent. White wine consumption dropped from 50 percent to 39.6 percent, the report said.
Say it like you know it
A few wine terms that could come in handy.
Body: The weight and fullness of a wine.
Bouquet: The smell from a bottled and aged wine.
Corkage fee: What some restaurants charge to open, pour a BYO wine.
Corked: The moldy flavor and smell caused by a tainted cork.
Dry: Little sugar taste.
Finish: A wine’s aftertaste.
Nose: A wine’s general smell and aroma.
Vintage date: The year the wine was made. U.S. wines must have 95 percent of their grapes come from that year.
Sources: Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, Wine Country Getaways
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Edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)
