Bev Art has a really cool deal on Valentine's day. My boyfriend and I went, it was held at the…read moreMarriot in downtown Chicago in a ballroom type area. In the beginning, you mix and make your own wine (red) and get to do a tasting. After that, they let you bottle it, teach you to cork it, and even put the top plastic part on it by using a machine to melt it. It was pretty cool to learn the bottling process. They also had several other wines available (red and white) to drink, as well. So people were drinking and getting loosened up prior to the actual wine making.
After that, we went inside to a classroom type area and learned how they made wine and about where they actually grow their grapes. It was cool, a little too informative, but that is only my opinion, several people enjoyed the process, however, a lot of people took advantage of the drinks in the beginning and didn't have the patience for it. So that could go either way. The concept, i will say was very cool.
After the presentation, we started making our own wine (we got to pre-order whatever we wanted) we chose a pinot grigio. We used water and followed the instructions, pour in ingredients, stir etc. It was pretty cool. This lasted about 30 minutes. People were continuing to drink and the couple next to us was really fun so the experience was getting even better.
Later, we moved back into the room at the Marriott and had a grape stomping contest. At this point, you could kind of separate the classier people vs. a few of trashier people that attended (it was mostly classy, young couples looking to have fun) but during the grape stomping, a few drunk girls were falling out of the bucket, being dramatic, crying. I mean, c'mon girls, keep it together. I felt bad for Bev Art's staff. I would have done this before we did the wine making, as people weren't as drunk yet and things wouldn't have been so out of control (not the companies fault, just the timing and the people not being able to control their liquor). This is my only critique of the night. They also gave us boxers that we could put on to stomp so we don't get dirty and boas and were able to take them home which was cute.
As we moved on to dinner, there was extra wine that they actually let us take home. There was one wine of theirs that I loved and I was able to take it home which I thought was very cool! It was their We moved on from that and went to dinner, it was a private area in the Marriott dining room. We had a four course, very classy meal, oysters, steak, cake, bread, it was great. Drinks werent included but for the price of everything, this was okay and totally acceptable.This was over by around 10:30 pm so we were still able to meet up with another couple afterwards.
The best part about all of this is that it cost us (for two people the entire night) a total of about $350-$375. This included the drinks, four course meal, wine tasting, wine educational portion, and the wine we made. The wine we made will make 25-30 bottles of wine that we will get to keep once it is ready and bottled! The wine alone, pays for itself, not to mention everything else we got to do!
At the end of the day, I would definitely recommend this company and their activities. It was fun, enjoyable, memorable, and educational. I hear they also have a beer one they do and I would definitely check it out.
