Grandi Marchi Wine Tasting – Italian Wines In Chicago
By Josephine Layug
The Grandi Marchi Wine Tasting is an incredible event where Italian winemakers introduce sommeliers to their newest wines. The gathering is a great opportunity for vineyards to educate sommeliers about the unique aspects and selling points of their products. This is a fun and educational event for people to gain insight to the wine industry and the nuances between the various types and brands of wine on the market. I love wine but am still a novice compared to many of the attendees. Although there are lots of vine-smarties here, the Grandi Marchi event provided lots of digestible information for even a grape-newbie like me.
Did you know that grapes can be grown using different types of soils or rocks? The characteristics such as regular soil, sand, and volcanic rock can vary across different plots of land. Depending on the rainfall and wind that season harvest can be more successful in certain types of growing conditions than others. This is exactly the type of information that you can stash away to impress your friends around the dinner table, and its all thanks to attending a Grandi Marchi event.
With this being my first wine tasting I didn’t know what to expect but it was a fun experience. My guest and I had the pleasure of tasting fifteen different wines from all over Italy, five white and ten red. Many of the wine makers closer to the volcanic flow claimed that this 2016’s batch of wine is one of the best that they have ever made. The mixture of soil and volcanic ash have helped the produce fruitful vines, according to the Tasca D’Almerita Vineyeard.
My favorite Grandi Marchi white wine was the Jermann Chardonnay, this vineyard’s grapes grow from a mixture of marlstone and sandstone. Jermann made an unusual decision to age their wine in stainless steel tanks. After hearing this I kinda wrote this wine off, I was wrong. This wine was delicious and the flavor of these grapes really shines through in this Chardonnay.
My favorite red wine came from the vines of the Pio Cesare Vineyard. You can smell the sweet floral scents in the wine. This wine is made with five different kinds of grapes from harvested from different vineyards. A blend like this can be very risky as many wine makers don’t like to mix grapes from other regions or vineyards. You will definitely enjoy a glass of this wine at dinner or as a nightcap.
My favorite wine of the wine tasting was the Donnafugata which has a very unique a color and flavor profile. This particular wine is made from dried grapes also known as, your favorite childhood snack, raisins. Since this wine is made from raisins you get a very pale red wine rendering a very sweet taste. This is a perfect wine for dessert or for a girls night out.
All of the vineyards at the Grandi Marchi wine tasting have hotels and cabins for guest to stay and enjoy a tour of the grounds and meals paired with the with the wines produced on the property. If you take a trip to these vineyards you will also learn more about the process of producing wine from the wine makers themselves. I cannot wait to plan my trip to Italy to visit these Vineyards and to learn more and of course drink the fruits of the labor.
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