You hear “wine therapy,” and you think a glass, a bottle and–after 10 or 15 minutes–a mellow mood. Right?
No. No. No. That is so 2004.
Wine therapy has taken on a whole new meaning. Happily, the mellow mood part still pertains.
When I learned that the Lincoln Park Massage Spa was promoting wine therapy as a new treatment–a treatment involving a massage–I thought it merited an intense hands-on look. Especially since the Chicago Tribune would be paying.
To be specific, the treatment is called a Chardonnay Massage with Le Vin Wine Therapy, and when I called to make the appointment I might have seemed a little overeager when I asked whether this involved both drinking and splashing around in genuine vino.
Uh, no.
Massage therapist Ashley Berger shut me down sweetly by explaining that the $100 one-hour wine treatment involved only products made from the extract of grape seeds imported from France.
Since it wasn’t my money, I quickly added a $50 half-hour Chardonnay “sugar polish.”
“Feel free to come 10 to 15 minutes early for hot tea and a neck massage. You’ll feel all pampered,” Ashley said.
Twenty-four hours later, I was sipping tea in a cushy chenille-covered couch in the peaceful spa waiting room, housed in an old two-story red brick building.
I didn’t arrive early enough for the neck massage and had just started to page through the guest book comments–“Hands of silk . . . The best massage I’ve ever had”–when my massage therapist, Santhana Sooksanun, appeared.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Happy to be here for a massage!” I replied.
“You’re going to be happier,” she predicted, showing me to an earth-colored massage room with a fall tree scene mural on one wall.
Before Santhana left me to undress and climb beneath a butter-colored sheet, she turned on some “music.” I haven’t figured out how this irritating New Age native flute trilling came to be the norm in these massage places. But it wasn’t exactly a major hardship. Besides, moments later I was zoned out and could barely hear it.
First, I was gently rubbed neck to toe with this grainy Chardonnay-based polish, billed as a scrub to “get rid of dull, dry skin and amplify moisture penetration on the newly exposed skin.” Then, warm, wet towels were used to wipe off this concoction that has a fresh, pleasant scent, not wine and not one of those fakey potpourri Wal-Mart candle smells.
Santhana was right. I truly was getting happier. Then came the massage. In a word: Yum.
I told Santhana that my back was killing me from a recent, ill-advised horseback ride and showed her where it hurt. She nodded and spent some time on the bad spots, which isn’t to say she neglected the rest of me. For a solid hour she gently kneaded and pushed and pressed and I fell into a blissful half-sleep.
Happy. Happier. By this time I was happiest.
During the 90 minutes Santhana spoke very little, wisely leaving me to wallow in my own contentment. At the end, she quietly told me she was done and to take my time getting up. After a couple of minutes I got dressed and was so relaxed that I wandered down the hall in the wrong direction, toward other massage rooms.
The Lincoln Park Spa is the only one in the Chicago area offering Wine Therapy. They’ll offer Valentine’s specials throughout February, with real (drinkable) wine, wine therapy massages for two, and assorted other inducements.
A sign in the spa says wine therapy “nourishes, softens, soothes, calms, clarifies, moisturizes and refreshes.” I’m not sure I emerged clarified or nourished but all the rest is true. Nonetheless, I wondered if the Chardonnay pitch was just a gimmick. I’ve never really bought into all this antioxidant, free radicals jabber. The Web site for the company that makes these products, Olavie.com, presents a different viewpoint.
My experience says I could’ve felt just as heavenly if the massage had not included wine therapy–which adds $15 to the $85 hour-long massage. I don’t think my skin was all that different afterward. I’ve tried the free bubble bath twice now, and while the packaging is clever, I think the cheap stuff I buy at Target is as good.
This is not to diminish the glorious experience of both the scrub and the massage. My aching back really did feel better. And the staff at the spa could not have been more delightful.
Here’s what I wrote in the comments book: “Wow!”
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Lincoln Park Massage Spa is located at 630 W. Webster Ave. 773-296-6300.
