Sipping Spring: Chicago’s Wine Experts Reveal their Top Picks for the Season
Much like the food we eat, beverages follow a certain seasonality. During the bridge seasons in Chicago, I lean on a glass of wine to romanticize an unexpectedly cold fall evening and to eagerly pull spring into March. With this in mind, Edible Chicago asked a handful of our favorite wine experts to share their picks for spring. – Megan Marshall
Koppitsch ‘Abendrot’
It has everything! Coferment! Skin contact! Semi-carbonic maceration! Lesser known varietals! A blend of Welschriesling and Rosenmuskateller and a few other grapes highlighting their Neuberg vineyard in the Leithaberg mountains of Austria. Ginger ale notes on the nose, acerola cherry flavor vibes, soft cheery acid and easygoing texture. A fun bridge between a red and rose, with the zip of a white. $36
Maeve Hall, Easy Does It
Llewelyn ‘Juvenilia’ 2022
Pete Bloomberg has been working on the Llewelyn project for the past few years in the same cellar as his mentor, California visionary, Caleb Leisure. Juvenilia is what he calls an “everything but the kitchen sink” wine. An assemblage of Chenin Blanc, Carignane (as both red and rosé), Chardonnay, and a dash of Syrah piquette makes for a pink wine that drinks more white than rosé. It drinks gently like the blush of the earth waking up after a long slumber and is as uplifting as seeing the first crocuses peek out of the soil. $38
Emily, Diversey Wine
Domaine Paul Blanck Pinot Noir Classique
Paul Blanck Pinot Noir is from Alsace, France. Alsace is known for making incredible white wines. I believe it is harder to make great white wine than it is red; so, if a great white winemaker makes a red wine, it’s likely going to be fantastic—and this Pinot Noir does not disappoint. Alsace’s Vosges Mountains combine beauty and balance making the wine dry, juicy & fruity, and one of the lightest Pinot Noir wines on the market. This light red wine is great with a slight chill, which is perfect for spring when temperatures vacillate from day to night. This is a wine that’ll make you rethink and fall in love with Pinot Noir all at once. $30
Derrick C. Westbrook, Bronzeville Winery
Domaine de la Sénéchalière (Marc Pesnot) “La Bohème” 2022
As soon as I’m ready to wrestle myself out of my winterized cocoon in Ravenswood Manor, I pop open a bottle of Marc Pesnot’s ‘La Bohème’ Muscadet and commune with my seasonal desires. Why is it that winter offers no truly memorable scents, whereas spring makes me think of an abundance of smells?
Pesnot’s work introduces itself as one of those odors — bit salty, slightly acidic but with warm sunny undertones: crisp linen worn on warm nights, the sour embrace of fermenting fruit, cracked asphalt, bubbling kitchens and the overbearing perfume of Callery pear. I’m continuously enchanted by this wine’s tension. Naples yellow in the glass, complex, playful and textured; dripping in gastronomic star potential. Open a bottle at your first dinner party of the season and I guarantee praise from on high! $28
Lauren Hunter Lee, Red & White Wines
COS ‘Nero di Lupo’ 2022
This light, fresh natural wine is perfect for spring. A 100% Nero d’Avola from Sicily, Nero di Lupo shows tons of fruit with some savory notes on the back end. Red cherry, watermelon, but also coffee grounds and broken-in leather. Throw a slight chill on it before drinking and you’ll be insanely satisfied. $30
Leigh Ervine, All Together Now
