The next step of the Just Grapes State/Elm journey continues as we posted the public notice for our liquor license application on the store front this week.  The city now has 60 days (week of May 20th) to respond.  If all goes well we would need another 2 weeks for minor replace & repair cosmetic work and 2-3 weeks of inspections.  Our goal is to open in June 2013.

Just Grapes State/Elm Liquor License Public Notice

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Zoning Board of Appeals Coordinator our Special Use Permit resolution has been signed for the new location of Just Grapes Elm/State and we will now be able to proceed with our liquor license application.  Stay tuned!

I am happy to announce that the Zoning Board of Appeals granted us our needed special use permit back in early January 2013, however they seem to be taking their time to officially sign the resolution.  Apparently the staff attorney that writes up the resolution was out.  We are told it will be signed sometime before March 15th.  We are unable to proceed with the next step of our liquor license application until this resolution is signed.  Once we are able to begin the liquor license application we could expect another minimum of 60 days to go through the process.  At best I hope to have the shop open in June 2013.  Stay tuned and wish us luck!

Our hearing on November 16, 2012 with the Zoning Board of Appeals was continued to Dec 21, 2012 due the ZBA’s strong recommendation for a Urban Planner to testify on our behalf. In addition to our survey results, we are trying to showing the ZBA overwhelming local neighborhood support by posting this petition. If you live in the Gold Coast area we would greatly appreciate your signature on this petition by clicking the link below.

Our hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals is this Friday to determine whether the City of Chicago allows us to move forward with the new location at 1149 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610. We need the ZBA to hear from from you guys on whether we would be a good addition to the neighborhood. Please fill out the survey by clicking this link http://tinyurl.com/bfud9cj.  . Thank you in advance for your time. Your feedback is important to us.

We have selected the Gold Coast for our next location.  The store front we have selected requires a “special use permit” for a packaged license which we have a hearing scheduled for on November 16, 2013.  We need all the support we can get from our customers informing Alderman Brendan Reilly and the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals that we would be a good addition to the neighborhood.  I will be sending out a survey via email to our customer list next week requesting your feedback on what our business has done for the neighborhood and our customers over the last 7+ years.  Please take the time to read it and return the survey as I will use results during my hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals. Cross your fingers and toes and wish us luck!  Thank you in advance for your time and support!

As many of you know we closed the business on January 21, 2012 due to a failed lease negotiation. We had planned to continue to run our website, but have failed to work out the logistics for storage/ordering/pick up. For now, we will simply maintain our wine blog to keep you updated on next steps. For now, our main website www.justgrapes.net will be redirected to our wine blog at blog.justgrapes.net.

I have been exploring many different opportunities for the next phase of Just Grapes including new locations and resurrecting the online portion of our website with new partners. Thanks again for all of your loyalty over the years. Please stay tuned for the next chapter.

Now, we know how I feel about neglecting sparkling wine during a meal (or any time for that matter): nonsense! But dessert wine? It’s the red-headed step child of the evening’s libations, rather than the climactic sipper for which it is intended. As children, we couldn’t wait for dessert; hiding vegetables in napkins, sneaking bites to the dog, inhaling chicken with rice to just be done with dinner! Now, seemingly, dessert, and particularly dessert wine, is overlooked; by the end of dinner we are either too full, or our wallets are feeling the pressure.
Ok, maybe dessert to share; there is room for one more bite. But more wine, too? Its getting late, have to be up early, wa Wa WA!
There is a reason those amazing bottles of dessert wines come in smaller sizes, and are served in glasses that belong in a dollhouse! The wine is richer and sweeter, the burn is hotter and heavier, and the taste is pure bliss. Like I said, climactic.
I have a personal preference for Sauternes, a region in Bordeaux, France from which botrytized Semillion and Sauvignon Blanc come. Botrytis is a fancy name for rot that, rather than ruin the wine, produces a sweet and concentrated style of wine; noble rot, as it is called. These wines usually display spicy aromas of dried apricot, lemon tart, honeyed apple, vanilla, and brandied white flower. This bad boy with food- quit it! Sauternes is particularly delicious with vanilla or chocolate desserts; the richness of the wine marries the richness and creaminess of vanilla or chocolate, allowing those notes of lemon tart and honeyed apple to pop.
Late harvest wine is another style of dessert wine. As the name suggests, late harvest wines are picked later in the harvest season, so the grapes are riper, thus producing a sweeter and more concentrated style of wine. Late harvest wines can be made from many types of grapes including Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, or Zinfandel. We happen to carry the Dashe Late Harvest Zinfandel, a wine with a nose of black pepper, spice, lavender and violet, black raspberry, cocoa, and vanilla; the palate is spicy, with black pepper and clove spice the dominant flavors. The explosive fruit is balanced with nice acidity, making the wine sweet but not candy-like.
So don’t forget about that dessert wine at the end of your next meal, elaborate or not.

Does the third Thursday in November mean anything to you? If it doesn’t yet, it will now. Considered Beaujolais Nouveau day to wine lovers around the world, this November 17th is the day the 2011 vintage of this delicious wine will be released.

Beaujolais Nouveau (or, Bo-Vo, as I like to call it) is a light, red wine full of youth and vibrancy. It undergoes carbonic maceration- the process of fermenting the juices while they are still in the grape- and is bottled usually only six weeks after harvest. The result is an acidic, fruitful wine that takes almost no tannin from the Gamay grapes from which it is made. Like it’s cousins Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, Bo-Vo is dominated by red fruit like raspberry, pomegranate, cranberry and red cherries. Many imbibers of this delicious serum (myself included) choose to enjoy it chilled as much as you would a white wine (50-55 degrees). Unlike other wines out of Beaujolais however, Bo-Vo is meant for early drinking, not for keeping.These earliest of wines are often the device by which to measure the vintage for Beaujolais. An excellent vintage for Bo-Vo will mean an excellent vintage for the rest of the Beaujolais vintage. Most say to drink it before the rest is released in May. In fact, it is there that we find the roots of this popular wine…

The Beaujolais region has always been making these young and fruity wines, carefully picking the grapes by hand (one of the only regions bound by law to do so). Prior to the 1970′s however, they did not travel very far, often being consumed only locally and usually out of pitchers from local eateries. Though these vintages of Bo-Vo were used merely to hold the locals over until the full vintage was later released, negociant Georges Duboeuf saw great marketing potential. In the early seventies Deboeuf encouraged the hype for this novelty wine far outside of Beaujolais. He started first in Paris where from it did not take long for the trend to catch on the world over. (don’t we all want to be a bit more Parisian sometimes?)

Today, over 65 million bottles (about 40% of total Beaujolais production), will be distributed around the world. It has become a global race to be the first to carry this newest of wines. To meet this end, the wine has even been carried across the Atlantic on Concorde jet, making it to New York in three hours!

In 1985 the official date of release (according to French law) became the third Thursday in November. The huge American market with its Thanksgiving holiday the following weekend would become a major target, as it remains today.Beaujolais Nouveau is such a food-friendly wine, pairing well with almost any fare, that it has made a regular place for itself at any family’s table.

Beaujolais Nouveau release parties are now popular, uncorking the newest bottles of the vintage at midnight the day of release, often with great pageantry and revelry.

Duboeuf is still the largest producer of Beaujolais Nouveau. Unlike the flower-depicting labels of his other wines, his Nouveau features a colorful artsy design that changes from vintage to vintage.

This year, Just Grapes will be taking place in the hysteria for these much-sought-after wines. If you are a Beaujolais lover, or someone looking to make an easy transition from white wines to red, I strongly encourage you to drop by and pick up some of the 2011 Bo-Vo before it’s gone. You don’t want to have to wait until spring to taste the soft and fruity pleasantry that is Beaujolais, and It is a magical thought to have while slurping down Bo-Vo that is was still grapes on a vine only a few short weeks before.

Let us give thanks- “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!” – (the new Beaujolais has arrived!)

We’re all familiar with silly quizzes that once completed are supposed to be able to tell you everything about yourself by adding up a total at the back of a magazine. Does their inaccuracy or ridiculousness keep us from tallying up our score though? Not really.

Every grape, vine and wine has character. Though the 10,000+ Vitis Vinifera grapes classified world-wide have a great deal in common (most notably being made into wine) they are all very unique as well. Possessing personalities that we come to be familiar with and differentiate between, these grapes all have their own signature traits- like us.

So, what kind of wine are you? Are you a thin-skinned Pinot Noir, referred to as a “Diva” because of the difficulty to produce, but when done right inspires a standing ovation? Are you an easy-to-please Cabernet Sauvignon friend to all, and full of potential? Or are you a big, bold Zinfandel, aggressive and zesty? Take a few minutes to complete this short, fun quiz and find out. Are you what you drink, after all?

http://www.experienceproject.com/quiz/quiz.php?quiz=7150

Enjoy,

Sam