Holiday shopping got you down? Just can’t find the perfect gift for those people on your list? Just Grapes has the answer! We’re truly a one-stop shop for everyone on your shopping list (even the little ones–our never-expiring tasting cards will still be valid once they turn 21!). To make it even easier, we’ve put [...]

While very few welcome winter with open arms, there is something undeniably charming about softly falling snow, the tiny white lights glittering from trees lining the streets, and the general warm fuzziness of family and friends around the holidays. In Chicago especially, there are tons of wintry events going on to keep the holiday cheer [...]

Miss our Thanksgiving Pairing class and still clueless about what to imbibe on Turkey Day? Well, we can forgive the whole “skipping class” thing (but don’t let it happen again!) and have recap to boot.
Now, we couldn’t just taste wine and try to imagine how great it would be with Thanksgiving fare–we at Just Grapes [...]

by Maggie Smith
Tasting wine for a living is a tough job, but someone has to relay this information to you! Last week at Gibson’s Steakhouse, our barrel group’s “mission” (linked blog post from last thursday) was to bring a bottle of wine in the $50-to-$100 price range from anywhere in the world to blind taste, [...]

by Brett Ashley McKenzie
The first 9 people to tell me what city the first challenge of reality show “The Winemakers:Season 2″ was taped will receive a pass for 2 people to an advanced screening to “The Boys Are Back” with Clive Owens today, Monday, September 21, 2009 at 7 PM at AMC 600 N Michigan [...]

It’s great to introduce people to adventurous and exciting grape types like Cabernet Franc. If you’re not familiar with this varietal, it is one of the common blending grapes in Bordeaux, mostly used on the right banks of Pomerol and Saint Emilion. The Loire Valley also grows this grape (most commonly seen as “Chinon” on the label.)

I recently attended a luncheon at NoMi where I got to enjoy the lively and elegant wines of Pascal Jolivet, a dynamic producer from the Loire Valley, with a perfectly paired menu of fresh, seasonal foods. And, the best part was having the opportunity to learn about each of the wines we were sipping from Monsieur Jolivet himself.

In the sea of wines out there, some are good, some mediocre, and some, well…just plain bad. And, every now and then, you taste a wine that stops you dead in your tracks. Speaks to you. Makes you aware of what style of wine just might be your bag. That happened to me today.

Would you believe that some biodynamic winemakers look to the skies–more specifically, the moon–for guidance in vineyard practices? At a luncheon hosted by Josmeyer Vin D’Alsace at La Sardine on Wednesday, Vine Grower and Managing Director Christophe Ehrhart showed me his pocket guide to the Earth’s distance from the moon at any given time, which helps govern planting, pruning, and harvesting at Josmeyer. Additionally, in lieu of pesticides and chemicals, the Josmeyer vineyards follow typical biodynamic practices of using other plants–such as willow, horestail, and nettles–to control mildew and disease.

I attended a tasting Tuesday at Avec of 28 Languedoc wines from the south of France which had been selected through a blind tasting by a group of American journalists and sommeliers from more than 150 wines. We tasted the stand-outs, which all offered a different taste of the region.
Languedoc wines have a particular style [...]