Chicago Wine Festival – Naperville Wine Festival

All this past weekend I heard about he Chicago Windy City Wine Festival at Daley Bicentennial Plaza. Everywhere I went there were ads and everyone was talking about the exciting Chicago wine festival. Well, I was stuck at home so I couldn’t go, but next week I think the same wine festival is moving to Naperville. Apparently they know their demographic well! Suburbanites hate that long hour plus drive into the city while sitting in bumper to bumper stand-still traffic. Who does like that drive? So I bet they just move the same wine festival to another 150 thousand people in the southwest burbs who are also wine fanatics. With over 250 wines to taste, the $25 dollar cover charge is a good deal since it is less than some people pay for just one bottle of wine. There is also a lot of food being tasted at this as well, and they have some music performances to add to the ambiance.

I actually know a lot of people that are very into wine in the Chicago suburbs. I once dated a guy who’s parents put in a wine cellar in their home. Not one of those wine fridges that fit under the counter in the kitchen, a whole room in their home that was professionally set up for the right coolness, humidity and temperature. It’s obvious that they liked to drink and they had enough money to toss at a hobby like wine drinking. They also saved all the corks from the bottles of wine and glued them to the ceiling so it was all cork. Not really that functional, but I guess an interesting conversation starter. (So you want to go see my cork?)  Hmm…

So, why is Wine so popular in Chicago now? It has always been around. Most of us remember our dad buying the Rossi gallon jug wines at the Jewel grocery Stores that would last a month or more. But somewhere between the movie Sideways and the Binny’s being a liquor metromart the Chicagoland area took up wine as a hobby. Wine tastings are a big social event in Chicago these days, you meet singles that way, you socialize and show off your wine sniffing skills. (I smell a hint of walnut, sheepskin and slight avocado overtones…) Which you just made up. I am joking of course, some real wine tasters do know these smells, but the rest of us are clueless.

They don’t grow much in the way of wine grapes here in Chicago Illinois, our cold winters are not good for the vines. One wine taster at a tasting a few years back asked the wine goddess that was hosting and teaching all of us the difference between old world European wines and New world California wines, if there were ANY good wines from the Midwest or Illinois, and she replied flatly No. He was a bit disappointed because I think he had just bought some.

I also think wine is popular in Chicago it reflects desire that the people have here to be more upmarket as a city. We’ve done the whole blue collar thing, but without any manufacturing on this side of the Atlantic, who really can make a blue collar living here anymore? Everyone in Chicago is clamoring to be a part of the upper middle class. And those people prove their social status by drinking fancy flavored micro-brewery beers and wine. But overall I think it’s more important to find what you can afford and drink what you like. If you have to impress your friends with alcohol you can’t afford and don’t like, why are you friends with them anyway? There are always mild $8-$12 dollar wines available at Binny’s (the sponsor of the festival) or Dicarlo Armanetti’s (Binny’s which just bought out and converted the Dicarlo’s on Rt 83 in Willowbrook) and you can enjoy a Riesling (if you’re a newbie) or a Pinot Grigio (if you’re more experienced) or a Cabernet. (If you’re an expert)

So, if you missed the fancy wine festival downtown last weekend at Daley Plaza on Friday and Saturday, you can still catch the Naperville Wine Festival this weekend at Naper Settlement in Naperville September 14-15 th 2007. Again tickets will be $25.00 (call 847-382-1480 ) and Naper Settlement is located at 523 South Webster Street in Downtown Naperville near I-88 and I-55. Naper Settlement is 2 blocks west of Washington Street at Aurora Ave and Webster. Allow extra time for parking and walking a few blocks away. Even though Naperville respects a suburbanite’s right to park freely any where any time they want (unlike Oak Park), parking spaces are limited in the downtown area. The parking garage at Naper Central might be your best bet.

Happy Wine Drinking!