WineBites - Bin 36

your guide to the best of wine and food

Bin 36, Chicago

Bin 36 339 North Dearborn
Chicago, IL
(312) 755-WINE

www.bin36.com

We were recently in Chicago and had read about Bin 36 in Wine Spectator Magazine. We weren't planning on making it our first stop, but it turned out that way.

I guess we liked it; we visited four times in three days.

Bin 36 serves 50 wines by the glass with a superb food menu in their large restaurant, and has a great wine shop with books and accessories.

You can order wine four ways: by the bottle, by the full glass, by the 2.5 ounce glass, or in pre-selected flights of four wines. The flights we tried averaged about $15 and they are generous pours. We really enjoyed the flights because the Bin 36 staff has put some great thought into picking the right combination of wines.

They've also put great thought into the details. Every wine has a full description. In the gift shop, those descriptions are on hang tags that you can take with you, so you have them home as you taste your wine. The staff is helpful, not stuffy or pretentious.

And best of all - it's reasonably priced.

Next time you go to Chicago, you have to make time to to visit Bin 36. It's one of the best wine bars in the country.

OF NOTE

Portello Wine Cafe, Bend OR (in Travel)
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Montevina Barbera (in WineNotes)
Red wine bombs are everywhere these days. We just visited one winery and was served a Sangiovese that was 16.5% alcohol. Big fruit + lots of alcohol = wine bomb.

It makes you appreciate a winery that can produce a nicely balanced red wine that is enjoyable to drink. Montevina Barbera is one of those wines. (More . . .)

ZAP 2008
Over 250 wineries pouring two or more different Zinfandels each -- it's heaven on earth for Zin lovers. (More . . .)

Barnard Griffin Wins
Barnard Griffin won Best of Class and the Pink Sweepstakes for its 2007 Rose of Sangiovese at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The Washington state winery also won a Double Gold for its 2005 Merlot, Columbia Valley, a Gold for its 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, and a Silver award for its 2004 Ciel du Cheval Reserve from Red Mountain.

Cape Cod Wine
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That's how we felt when we discovered Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod on a recent trip there.