What if there was an event where young people (read: people like me who drink Svedka instead of expensive vintage cabernet sauvignons) can learn about the wine by tasting 250 wines from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the United States?
What if you can obtain a free ticket to this amazing drinking fest by volunteering beforehand?
The answer is, of course, you do it!
My friend Emily was the wine aficionado who first discovered The Second Glass Wine Riot, and without much need for discussion, we both agreed that volunteering to obtain the free ticket was in fact the most splendid of ideas and signed up immediately. The Wine Riot took place in a sealed off portion of Chicago’s Union Station. We arrived for our set-up shift around 2pm, and upon seeing the venue, it occurred to me that a busy public train station was an interesting place to host a drinking fest. Then again, perhaps being in public would limit certain antics that come with wine tasting for four hours straight.
When our shift ended, we scrambled to the nearest Potbelly’s with the other volunteers and chowed down sandwiches. I was absolutely not hungry, but in order to prepare for the battle ahead, stuffing bread down my throat seemed to be quite necessary. Hurrying back to the Wine Riot, Emily and I began our tastings at the Alsace booth. Reminiscing about our time in Strasbourg, we downed delicious glasses of Alsacian whites – dry reisling, sparkling pinot noirs, pinot gris and many more.
Emily was almost too embarrassed to take this photo, but I loved posing as a giant wine bottle.
There were also “crash courses” in wine – one of which involved tasting four wines and guessing which one was a $4 bottle and which one was a $150 bottle! The $150 wine actually tasted disgusting – looks like I won’t be blowing my money in vintage reds any time soon. At this point, memories of the evening are starting to get hazy. Although my knowledge of wine is very limited in real life, after a few hours of tasting, I find myself spewing out pretentious phrases such as “OH! I am loving this red blend of petit syrah and pinot noir, with notes of black cherry and dark chocolate!” Wtf was I saying?! It was utterly horrifying to hear myself having drunken conversations about the “texture” and “body” of Napa chardonnays, but we were past the point of no return by then. None of us even remember getting in a cab and returning to Hyde Park, but having survived to tell the tale, I would highly recommend all wine lovers to join the Riot next year! For us, it was certainly a fitting beginning to Senior Week.
Musings of a Leaf 