Windy City Wine Festival’s 12th run

On September 9th and 10th, the Windy City Wine Festival is going to pair Grant Park with good times for the 12th year in a row.

“Our goal is to have sixty different tables with about six bottles of wine at each,” says Scott Janess, a Vice President at the award winning Chicago PR firm KemperLesnik and co-founder of the event. “For the food component, we try to work with the best restaurants in Chicago. Last year we had 16 different restaurants selling their best dishes from about $5 to $16.”

Since 2004, the Windy City Wine Festival has grown into a grape-centric metropolitan blowout with live music, guest speakers, celebrity cooking demonstrations, and, yes, beer.

“At the Best of Belgium Café, they do the nine-step pouring ritual,” he explains. “They’ll bring someone of Belgian decent who has been trained in this method and they’ll pair the beer with food. Lotta laughs during that demonstration.”

But, as the name implies, the Windy City Wine Festival is very much about the wine. The $35 advance admission price (until September 8 at windycitywinefestival.com) includes a souvenir wine glass, 12 tastings and — perhaps to ensure a proper day-drinking balance — one pint of beer.

The price also includes the opportunity to purchase wine at a discount, which can help guests enjoy some of the funnest weekend schooling around.

“Everybody manning the tables is coming from the winery itself or the traditional distributor,” explains Mr. Janess. “They’re there, of course, to sell you some wine; but also to educate you. There’s nothing worse than going to the store and buying a $30 bottle of wine and not enjoying it.”

According to Peter Schwarzbach, owner of the festival’s 2016 retail partner Vin Chicago, thirsty consumers can treat their tastebuds to “a really good bottle” for much less.

“There’s no better time in history to be a wine consumer and wine drinker,” he says. “For eight, nine, ten bucks, you can get a phenominal bottle of wine.”

The trick to identifying the right bottle at the Windy City Wine Festival, he says, is to just keep trying.

“Go back and forth between red wines and white wines,” he advises. “Try different things. Try your favorites and try things from a country you’ve never tried before. If a label doesn’t look familiar, just give it a try.”

With any luck, the more you try, the easier it gets.

www.windycitywinefestival.com