Would like to join / form a small group of folks to get together and share / taste wines. Want the focus to be on tasting and learning. Would be nice to have a mix of folks of varied experience. Would love a social aspect to this, but the focus really needs to be about the wine, however it should be fun.

Thinking this means once a month one member hosts and everyone brings a glass, a bottle of wine, a wine friendly h'orderve and a notebook.

Does something like this exist already?

Who would be interested?

Check out one of the other tasting threads. It should give you an idea of how wine.wooters usually do tastings. Not that you have to do it the same way, but it's at least a guide.

I'd probably be interested. I'm in Chicago but Lake County isn't too far.

i am open as I mentioned in the other thread. I live in Lake County, but have all of my wine shipped to my office in the west Loop.

I am in Will county, close but not too close.

Be sure to make some noise in the Cyber Pub! Several of the "regulars" over there are in the Chicago area. It has been quite a while (maybe a year) since the last get-together in the area.

I've added this thread to the "needs some help" portion of the weekly round-up. Good luck!!!

Bahwm and I are in Buffalo, but if the timing is right, we'd be interested. It wouldn't be the first time we'd be flying to Chicago for a woot gathering.

A nice theme might be "Lots of lakes", featuring wines from the Finger Lakes and Lake County CA (which has some nice PS, zin, and even cab).

cjsiege wrote:Be sure to make some noise in the Cyber Pub! Several of the "regulars" over there are in the Chicago area. It has been quite a while (maybe a year) since the last get-together in the area.

I've added this thread to the "needs some help" portion of the weekly round-up. Good luck!!!

It has been a while. February was the last Chicago woot tasting...

I'm in Printer's Row (just south of the Loop), so we might be interested as well!

I live all the way out in Kendall county but would be willing to travel. I am up for a good wine experience.

It may be hard to get something regular going but don't let that discourage you. I live in Lemont but would definitely be willing to travel as long as schedule allows.

I'm in the Milwaukee area. I probably couldn't make any sort of regular meeting, but I would love to join you guys sometime.

tommythecat78 wrote:It may be hard to get something regular going but don't let that discourage you. I live in Lemont but would definitely be willing to travel as long as schedule allows.

Based on your username I think we have more than just wine as our common interests haha. Great band.

JRummel wrote:Based on your username I think we have more than just wine as our common interests haha. Great band.

Only one of a few people to make the connection (at least that have said something). They need to do another tour.

Back on topic... The best way to get something started, if your planning on hosting or organizing, would be to start throwing out dates and see what kind of response you get and go from there. Then choose a theme (if wanted) or food style or other ideas.

If something is done in Chicago, or relatively close to public transportation, I would be interested. Sorry, I do not drive so I am limited to where I can go.

PS - Hi all!

zorandra wrote:If something is done in Chicago, or relatively close to public transportation, I would be interested. Sorry, I do not drive so I am limited to where I can go.

Same here.

I too would be interesting in doing something as call schedule allows...it's been too long since the last wine.woot even in chicago

I live in Chicago, and I'm interested. I can't host, though; I live in a shoebox in Gold Coast.

I would be happy to put something together at my office in the city. We are on North Clinton next to a an L stop (Green & Pink lines) as well as 1.5 blocks from Olglevy.

We are in a 6 story loft building. If there is interest - I will get some assistance at work and pick a date.

Mrpopcorn wrote:I would be happy to put something together at my office in the city. We are on North Clinton next to a an L stop (Green & Pink lines) as well as 1.5 blocks from Olglevy.

We are in a 6 story loft building. If there is interest - I will get some assistance at work and pick a date.

Just saw this - the location you're describing is just blocks from my office so this would be great if we can get enough people interested.

Don't forget to keep your eyes open for the next Buffalo tasting--date TBD. (We're thinking about doing bubbly! Shhh!) We're just a short flight away. And, it's a direct flight on Southwest and most other airlines. We've been able to get some excellent deals on SW. Plus, ddeuddeg and I are about 15 minutes from the Buffalo airport.

JRummel wrote:Just saw this - the location you're describing is just blocks from my office so this would be great if we can get enough people interested.

Same situation for me. I'm not sure how these work as I've never been to one, but I'm definitely interested.

Also, about to be in for my first ever w.w..

My wife and I live in Printer's Row. We're definitely game for most anything (and most anywhere in Chicago)! It's definitely been too long since the last Chicago area w.w get together!

*crickets*

C'mon... there have to be wooters in the Chicago area who would like to get together once in a while for a Barbaresco Bash... or a Priorat Party... or a Syrah Soiree... or a... I can't think of any more.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't been to a w.w get together before (I've only been to one), they can be as formal or informal as we want them to be. They can center around a certain type of food... a certain type of wine... a certain price-point (I've always thought a brown bag tasting with sub-$15 wine except for one more expensive ringer thrown in would be fun...) or just be totally random. As long as there's people and wine, you really can't go wrong.

saxwizerd45 wrote:*crickets*

C'mon... there have to be wooters in the Chicago area who would like to get together once in a while for a Barbaresco Bash... or a Priorat Party... or a Syrah Soiree... or a... I can't think of any more.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't been to a w.w get together before (I've only been to one), they can be as formal or informal as we want them to be. They can center around a certain type of food... a certain type of wine... a certain price-point (I've always thought a brown bag tasting with sub-$15 wine except for one more expensive ringer thrown in would be fun...) or just be totally random. As long as there's people and wine, you really can't go wrong.

Could be that until this current break in the weather, no one wanted to go out?!

jmdavidson wrote:Could be that until this current break in the weather, no one wanted to go out?!

Your point is irrefutable... but no harm in planning something for the future ((when there isn't a foot and a half of snow on many sidewalks) don't get me started about property owners not clearing their sidewalks...)).

I live in Cook County and am very interested in participating! So long as it does not happen on a Saturday night (I am a bartender) - I'm in! ;) Happy Monday!

It pains me to see this thread just sitting around... Wish I had more than a one bedroom apartment to host something like this.

We've got a party room of sorts in our condo building (it's pretty nice - full kitchen, like 6 flat screens, lots of loungy seating and tables as well) that we might be able to use to host... it might have a fee associated with it to reserve it though... can't remember right now.

Last time we had a meet-up we went to a BYOB. This works out well because all cooking, cleaning, etc. is out of our hands.

Maybe we need to start an official-er thread and start getting some concrete dates and ideas thrown around... seems like we've got enough interest...

Hi There Local Wooters!

I just wanted to make sure that y'all know about the Midwest Wine Expo coming up on Sunday, March 27th (info on Binny's website, including a list of 300ish participating wineries).

https://www.binnys.com/secure/events/

Cheers!

Also a rather large event on Sunday March 20th in Countryside.

http://www.mainstreetwine.us/

250+ wines with local food fare.

jmdavidson wrote:Also a rather large event on Sunday March 20th in Countryside.

http://www.mainstreetwine.us/

250+ wines with local food fare.

Thanks so much for posting this jmdavidson!
I decided to join their club, so I can attend the VIP tasting portion of the event too. Sounds like they have a very nice variety of offerings!

Cheers!

karenhynes wrote:Thanks so much for posting this jmdavidson!
I decided to join their club, so I can attend the VIP tasting portion of the event too. Sounds like they have a very nice variety of offerings!

Cheers!

I did the VIP tasting at the last event. I thought it was definitely worth the extra money.

Binny's Wine Expo is on Sunday (03/27). The event is sold out. Anyone with an extra ticket to sell? If so, please send me a PM.

Somehow I completely missed seeing this. It's been far too long since I've been out to Chicago (I blame the weather), so would love to join you if you all settle on a date.

A note, from one who does 90% of the hosting in the Detroit region - threads where no dates are thrown to the readers never go anywhere. Since the one who posted this thread hasn't posted since, someone else is going to need to take the reins and get this rolling. At least start with picking a month

So what say ye? May? June?

AHEM.

cheron98 wrote:AHEM.

Need a glass of water?

I suggest a quarterly gathering. The only theme my hubby and I can offer is that we have (I believe) every unique woot wine offering, all the way back to four bottles of Rinfrescente from 2000. Along with an entire wine closet full of various wine woot offerings from the past 10 years, with a smaller cache of Napa Valley wine offerings gathered during a trip two years ago.

We are casual wine drinkers and would love to learn more about how to "properly" "taste" and "rate" wines.

We live southwest of Chicago in Plainfield and would love to host a gathering of other wine wooters. Our summer months are pretty busy, but we might have a few dates open:
July 16th or 23rd & Aug 27th. Otherwise, we're looking at fall dates - Sept 17th & Oct 22nd.

We can fit about 30 - 40 comfortably indoors. We can figure out logistics of food, other wines to bring, etc later, once a date is picked for availability of most wooters. Send me a PM of dates you might be interested in and we'll see what we can work out.

Maybe WineDavid would like to attend??? We would be honored.

animallover wrote:I suggest a quarterly gathering. The only theme my hubby and I can offer is that we have (I believe) every unique woot wine offering, all the way back to four bottles of Rinfrescente from 2000. Along with an entire wine closet full of various wine woot offerings from the past 10 years, with a smaller cache of Napa Valley wine offerings gathered during a trip two years ago.

We are casual wine drinkers and would love to learn more about how to "properly" "taste" and "rate" wines.

We live southwest of Chicago in Plainfield and would love to host a gathering of other wine wooters. Our summer months are pretty busy, but we might have a few dates open:
July 16th or 23rd & Aug 27th. Otherwise, we're looking at fall dates - Sept 17th & Oct 22nd.

We can fit about 30 - 40 comfortably indoors. We can figure out logistics of food, other wines to bring, etc later, once a date is picked for availability of most wooters. Send me a PM of dates you might be interested in and we'll see what we can work out.

Maybe WineDavid would like to attend??? We would be honored.

I have no problem posting that the dates look good for me. I hope others in the Chi-town area can make it as well. Just let us all know what we need to bring. Thanks for stepping up to do this.

animallover wrote:I suggest a quarterly gathering. The only theme my hubby and I can offer is that we have (I believe) every unique woot wine offering, all the way back to four bottles of Rinfrescente from 2000.

We did that last year here in Detroit - and I had to scrape and beg around to find a bottle of Rinfrescante. VERY Awesome that you still have 4 bottles of it!!

If/when this gets going, it could very well be one of those crowd-drawing themes. I think we had about 30 here last year from various corners. WD tried to make it out but was unable to - be sure to bring it to his attention. I'm sure he'd love to attend.

Except for Aug 27, those dates all look good to me. Why don't you start up a new thread, with "Chicago" in the title - then you can control the lead post for attendance and stuff. Check out some of the other gathering threads to see what we tend to do to get things organized and going