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Chicago: a universe of wine
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It’s easy to become bored with wine in Chicago. But while we have so much to choose from, human beings what we are, we prefer to stick with the tried and true. Thus, 70% of what we drink is from California.
That other 30%? You can guess: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, South Africa, New Zealand and Greece sell us over 90% of all the foreign wines we drink. However, that other 10% or so is still of interest. And it sparked me to look at the shelves recently to see who else sells us wines.
Hungary? Slam dunk with one of the world’s most famous sweet wines: Tokaji (Tokay). But they also send us dry whites (Furmint, for instance) and dry reds like Egri Bikaver. Just across the border north is Slovakia which sends us a Riesling or two. The Swiss drink most of their own wine but you’ll spot a Fendant or a Dole if you try. Heck, there’s even English sparkling wine available.
Bulgaria is one of the leading growers of Cabernet Sauvignon, and they offer us good value examples of that as well as Chardonnays. Likewise Romania, although we don’t see as much of them as we did when Monsieur Henri (owned by a cola company) traded syrup for inexpensive reds and whites. But you can find their version of Tokaji—Murfatlar-- if you look around.
The countries of the former Yugoslavia have been making wine forever so you can find the Croatian Dingac, Slovenian Riesling and even Montenegran “Burgundy”.
Further east, for the lovers of off-dry to sweetish reds, the ex-Soviet nations of Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova fill the bill. There is even, for pity sakes, a sparkling Lithuanian wine on the market.
The Middle East, home to winemakers with millennia-rich experience, offers a ton of Israeli wine but also several good whites and reds from Lebanon. We used to have Turkish Buzbag – a good dry red –here, but I haven’t seen any in a while. Works well if you’re in a Zorba-like dance mode. Any help?
There is very little Japanese wine made, but we get a little from the Koshu grape. And I’ve seen Indian sparkling wine here as well as semi-sweet Chinese Muscat.
Thought you’d covered South American with Chlle and Argentine? There’s Uruguyan Tannat and Brazilian Cabernet available
Now this may seem odd, but we haven’t seen many wines from the good old Midwest here: until relatively recently. Now there’s Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio wine on the shelves.
Have to really dig for these? I found most of them on a casual tour of the local Binny’s and Sam’s. But you might have to check out places like Mayer’s in Lincoln Square or the Devon Market near Ashland. Try Extra Value Wine & Liquor on N Western or Rich’s Deli in the Ukranian Village. In the burbs, there’s Liquor Barn and the Greenwood Market, both in Niles, and the Eurostyle Deli in Skokie.
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