Toasting to the success of First Batch Hospitality, the first winery in downtown Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- On the corner of Clark and Superior in River North, sits what is soon to be Chicago Winery.
The 25,000 square foot space is a nearly complete winery, downtown Chicago, where they do everything except for grow the grapes. CBS 2's Jamaica Ponder uncorks the promise of a new business where grape minds think alike.
"We are a fully functioning metropolitan winery. Can't see it just yet in full effect. But once this is all done, you will have a full view into the winery from pretty much every space in the building. We make all of the wine that you will drink in-house here in this building. Grapes get shipped in from California, from New York, and we make all of the wine here on site and then serve it in our restaurants and in our event space," said Marisa Malgieri, Director of Sales at the Winery's parent company, First Batch Hospitality.
The space will host a tasting room, a boutique winery, a second floor, private space for weddings and corporate events, as well as a full bar and restaurant downstairs called Liva — run by Chef Andrew Graves.
"Chef Graves, who has been in town for more than 15 years and has great relationships with local farmers, other local purveyors that he's going to be able to not only bring in those local products, but also use the byproducts from the winemaking process," said Alex Gilbert, senior marketing manager at the Winery.
In-house winemaker Erik Subrizi, is behind their boutique winemaking operation. And, despite being small batch, they are quite literally dealing with tons of grapes.
"This year we're on track to produce 44 tons of grapes that will come through this building, at which point that's going to create something around 3000 cases of wine or about 5000 bottles," said Subrizi.
"This is one of our tanks that we're fermenting Savaguion Blanc in…this is coming out of the Suisun Valley in California. This is actually pretty much the first wine where we started producing here. So you can smell a little bit kind of like bright tropical aromas are coming through, a little bit of grapefruit, maybe some passion fruit…Not completely done fermentation, but a really good snapshot of what's to come, you know, really kind of bright, citrusy, sort of summer in a glass," said Subrizi.
Summer in the glass might come handy this winter. And there's plenty more of that to come as they're expecting another shipment of grapes this Friday morning.
"[We're getting] 96 barrels. So all in all, we'll have both our rooms quite full. And it would be about 168 to 200, depending on how much Tetris I can play," said Subrizi.
Gilbert says that that "real idea is about coming in here and sharing this space, sharing the food, sharing your time, sharing your experience, and really just developing that community sense."
The winery is set to open in November, but on Friday it'll be having a floral activation, handing out bouquets, gift cards and even a wedding gown. So if you're in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out.
