Saturday's Grand Tasting will showcase over 60 phenomenal producers of pinot noir. Consumers will be able to sample up to 300 pinots from every important domestic pinot noir region, from the Russian River Valley to Oregon, Carneros to the Santa Lucia Highlands, the Anderson Valley to the Sonoma Coast. Come taste the highly acclaimed 2007 vintage, and talk with the gifted winemakers who created these beautiful wines. Attendees will have access to pinots previously unavailable in Illinois. Local specialty food purveyors will serve delectables that pair well with pinot.
4TH ANNUAL PINOT DAYS GRAND FESTIVAL TRADE TASTING
Saturday's Grand Tasting will showcase over 100 phenomenal producers of pinot noir. Consumers will be able to sample up to 300 pinots from every important domestic pinot noir region, from the Russian River Valley to Oregon, Carneros to the Santa Lucia Highlands, the Anderson Valley to the Sonoma Coast. Come taste the highly acclaimed 2008 vintage, and talk with the gifted winemakers who created these beautiful wines. Attendees will have access to pinots previously unavailable in Illinois. Local specialty food purveyors will serve delectables that pair well with pinot.
Enjoy an incredible, pinot-paired dinner and eighteen different pinots, as well as the colorful, gifted winemakers who create them. We’ll begin with ten producers pouring to you in a walk about setting while small delectables are passed, and then sit down to a four-course, pinot-focused dinner, each course paired with two pinots. The winemakers will move seats with every course so that they are able to share their stories with attendees. Award winning Executive Chef Brian Millman will present food pairings for each Pinot producer. Enjoy phenomenal wine and food in an ideal environment for doing both! Uncommon Ground has recently been named Best New Restaurant in Chicago Magazine and Time Out Chicago. Their organic rooftop garden (from which they create incredible dishes) has attracted even the Mayor s notice, and earned them countless accolades, including their official title as "The First Certified Organic Roof Top Farm in the Country. This pinot-paired appetizers and four-course dinner will be one for the archives, and this dinner is one not to miss.
Participating Producers
Pre-Dinner
Dinner
PINOT 101 WITH BRIAN DUNCAN: PREPARE FOR PINOT DAYS CHICAGO!
Before heading to Saturday’s Grand Festival where you can taste over 350 pinots, you’ll want to take this crash course in great pinot noir with Brian Duncan, Chicago’s most knowledgeable and celebrated pinot noir fan and the brilliant “Wine Guy” behind Bin 36. Under Brian’s tutelage and with 16 of the finest pinots on the market before you, you will discover why everyone raves about pinot noir (and about Brian himself, who is tall on charm, knowledge and wit!). You will explore pinot’s various regions and celebrated vineyards and see the difference that land makes. You will experience pinot’s considerable breadth of style, ranging from elegant and restrained to bold and deeply fruity. And you will meet the colorful and mind-bogglingly talented personalities behind each of these exceptional wines and hear great stories of their winemaking labors of love. The tasting will be blind, and in four flights. With each flight, you will enjoy the pinot pairings of Chef John Caputo, the mastermind behind Bin 36’s unparalleled wine and food pairings. Chef Caputo’s pinot-paired appetizers will allow the featured pinots to fully express themselves while their winemakers do the same. Finally, if you listen carefully during this tasting, you can answer trivia questions that may result in winning a bottle of one of these stellar wines to take home. Sound like a good reason to start your weekend early? This will be a fun-filled, educational, once-in-a-pinotphile's lifetime event that you should not miss. Space is limited.
