Medals for state wines flow freely

ILLINOIS COMPETITION | Judges generous as growers and vintners seek an identity

Illinois wine: a topic that's more likely to bring snickers in serious Chicago wine-drinking circles than any sort of informed comment.

I was skeptical, too. So, when Bradley Beam, a University of Illinois enologist who also works with the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association, asked this month if I'd be willing to serve as a judge, all expenses paid, for the annual Illinois State Fair Wine Competition, I had mixed feelings.

It would be a great opportunity to sample the state's wines, but what if I didn't like any of them? And I didn't have any real credentials for offering an opinion anyway, just a hobby interest in wine and some experience in writing about the industry.

Ultimately, my curiosity got the best of me, and I didn't regret it. After sipping, swishing and spitting out 130 Illinois wines in less than 48 hours, it became clear that there were some I could thoroughly enjoy.

The Illinois wine industry is in its adolescence relative to other Midwest states, having just last year received its first official American Viticultural Area designation in the Shawnee Hills area of southern Illinois. For now, the state is experiencing an identity crisis of sorts, torn between trying to develop a signature state wine, such as Chardonel, from a hybrid grape suited to the cooler Illinois climate and pursuing wines made from the more traditional vinifera grapes, such as Cabernet Franc.

"We need to try to find a state identity for the sake of marketing, some place where we fit into the world of wine," Beam said. "It's not going to be easy."

One of the biggest marketing problems is that the wines are almost impossible to come by in Chicago. Ordering online or by phone directly from the wineries or making a visit often are the only options.

The competition went like this: 12 judges came together in a conference room at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and divided into three tables of four judges, including grape-growing scientists, retailers, restaurateurs and consumers like me. The judges tasted about a dozen different flights of wines, grading the clarity, color, bouquet, taste, finish and overall impression of the wine. Once each judge had a rating for a given wine, we discussed and haggled over a consensus score that gave the wine a bronze, silver or gold medal or no medal at all.

The three other judges at my table all had more experience with Midwest wine than I did. One of them, Bill Shoemaker, a University of Illinois researcher who consults with the state's grape farmers, is particularly well-versed in hybrids that many wine drinkers have never heard of. These are grapes that yield wines such as Chardonel, an oaked, citrusy white wine; Chambourcin, a light red wine low in tannins, and Traminette, a floral-scented wine similar to Gewurtztraminer.

As my judging panel sailed through the wines at a pace of about four minutes a wine, I learned that we gave a bronze medal to just about any wine that wasn't awful. A comment by Shoemaker reflected the approach.

"It wasn't a bad wine," he said of one Traminette. "It just wasn't a very good wine."

All in all, 228, or more than 85 percent of the 267 wines entered in the competition, took a medal. There were 37 that earned a gold medal. The best in show wine was a raspberry-blueberry fruit wine called "Red and Blue" ($10.95) from Pheasant Hollow Winery in Whittington that was bursting with a luscious blend of the berries. An aromatic, rich Norton grape dessert wine called "Nort Noir" ($15.49), made by Kickapoo Creek Winery in Edwards, took second place.

In addition to the raspberry-blueberry wine, my table gave gold medals to a Cabernet Franc from Prairie State Winery ($16.99), a Chambourcin from Alto Vineyards ($18.09) and a Concord from Von Jakob Vineyards ($9.95) that the other judges at my table said reminded them of their favorite childhood jelly.

Some industry veterans aren't necessarily believers in the idea of developing a trademark Illinois varietal. Take Mike Boegler, who volunteered at the competition and who farms eight acres of grapes near Downstate Ava, growing Cabarnet Franc as well as hybrids such as Chambourcin. He's betting that Illinois wines made from the traditional vinifera grapes will become more common in the southern part of the state as temperatures and demand rise.

"The vinifera is definitely going to be a part of the future of our state," Boegler said. "The hybrid wines are good wines. There's nothing wrong with them, but they have a name recognition problem."

Lynne Marek is a local free-lance writer.