Selecting an appropriate wine, especially when pairing it with a meal, can be incredibly intimidating if you know little about wine. By its nature, wine represents incredible variations—from vineyard to vineyard, grape to grape, year to year—making the choice far harder than Bud vs. Guinness. If you like wine, but wouldn't call yourself an expert, Fine Wine Brokers in Lincoln Square is your place. More intimate than Chicago's liquor/wine superstores, yet not challenging to those who are mere wine dilettantes, Fine Wine Brokers specializes in carefully-selected bottles from small and artisanal wineries that you won't be able to find at big supermarkets. Owner Gerhard Rohr has all of the passion of a wine aficionado with none of the pretensions. And he's just plain fun to talk to about wine.
An evening at Fine Wine Brokers usually starts like this: a man walks into the shop after work and says, "I'm having skirt steak, black beans and corn for dinner. What type of wine should I get?" Gerhard takes him to a particular corner of the store where his Pacific Northwest wines are located, then launches into a variety of options based on the man's tastes. What is his recommendation? A light, fruity zinfandel or a grenache. When the man leaves, bottle in hand, Gerhard jokes, "I keep trying to tell people that they need to pick the wine first, then figure out what to eat." Clearly a wine enthusiast, Gerhard has obviously sampled most, if not all, of what he recommends to his customers. Although he'd been involved in various aspects of the wine business for many years, Fine Wine Brokers, which he co-owns with a business partner, was his first retail venture. In November 2005, the shop will celebrate its 12th anniversary.
As a wineseller, it seems like the tempting path would be to always recommend your favorites. But when you're a true wine lover like Gerhard, you can see the value in all different types of wine. In his early wine drinking years, he acquired a taste for European wines. "When you consider that I'm an old person," says Gerhard, "California was just emerging as a quality producer when I started drinking wine. The wine world, at that time, was typically driven by European styles of wine and especially by those from France. And the tastes that you acquire when you're younger tend to stay around for a long time." Since then, Gerhard explains that the world of wine has expanded dramatically. "Now there are many wonderful, wonderful wines produced around the world," he says. Lately, he has been exploring and enjoying the wines of Portugal.
You can drink your way around the world at Fine Wine Brokers. Clever signs and handwritten notes help you navigate what's available from different countries and regions. (One sign for a rosé wine reads, "Real men drink pink. Women love it too!") And you can always ask Gerhard for personal help in choosing a wine. What you won't find is the high-volume name brand wines that fill the shelves at drugstores and supermarkets. Fine Wine Brokers looks for wines from small vineyards, artisanal wineries and bottles that are farther off the beaten path. The shop stocks a great selection of wines for everyone, from the fine wine collector to someone just looking for an easy-to-drink bottle to serve with dinner. "We have wines for Wednesday night when you're having hamburgers or pizza, and we have wines that are perfect for your Saturday night meal when you might prepare something a little more special and get the table linens out of the closet. In that case, you might want to upgrade a little," says Gerhard.
 Plenty of customers rely on Gerhard to get them through challenging wine situations. One customer was going to dinner with a friend who was Greek and wanted to find a wine from Greece to bring. Another customer came in and asked Gerhard if he could give him a quick lesson on wine. "He was taking a client out to dinner with his boss, and he said to me 'I'm paying, so I'm not going to let my boss grab the wine list out of my hands,'" laughs Gerhard. There's a great synergy between the Lincoln Square neighborhood and the shop, which explains why Fine Wine Brokers has more business than ever twelve years after it opened its doors. "This is a neighborhood of people who are well traveled, well educated. They like to cook and eat good food—this is a lifestyle that lends itself to wine," explains Gerhard. "They are also open to learning a bit about wine."
People on their way home from the "L" typically pop in to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner, like the skirt steak man. They also come in before dining at the many BYOB restaurants in the neighborhood. Gerhard carries a guidebook titled BYOB Chicago, which exclusively lists local BYOB restaurants and a selection of specialty wine stores. "This neighborhood is really an exciting place to be, with its multiplicity of restaurants and a huge array of cuisines represented," says Gerhard. "That's one of the fun parts about wine, now. More and more of the globe is represented. The wine map has exploded." When pairing wine with food, it's always a good idea to drink a wine from the same region as the dish you're preparing, for example, a nice Italian wine with a pasta dish. If you plan to add wine to your dish, Gerhard recommends cooking with a good, drinkable wine—not the best wine, but something of reasonable quality that's appropriate for the dish. "Julia Childs always said, 'Never cook with what you're not willing to drink,'" says Gerhard.
While Gerhard is busy taking care of his customers, one of his distributors walks in to pay him a call. Greg Wolter, president of Von Beaumont Distributing is, like Gerhard, a wine lover who specializes in a focused area of wine—in this case, American wines from the Pacific Northwest. He's one of the people Gerhard counts on to find obscure, yet interesting wines made by smaller wineries. "We're all about supporting domestic producers," explains Greg. "People always complain about the demise of the American farmer while drinking a glass of Australian Shiraz and writing a check to Farm Aid. Nothing sends shivers down my spine more than that." Within the US market, Gerhard and Greg describe how about 5 to 6 conglomerates produce the majority of the wine. But at the same time, many small wineries are still flourishing. "Some consumers like that they're not drinking the 450,000th bottle of Brand X—instead they're drinking something made from grapes grown by a farmer whose wife's name is Betty," says Greg.
Part of the appeal of wine comes from the mythology surrounding it. "There's a romantic idea that is implicit in wine," explains Gerhard. "People don't like to think that this very nice glass they're drinking came from a stainless steel vat. People like that there's a story behind wine." Fine Wine Brokers exists for just such a customer. Wines are available there with labels that are hand numbered, from wineries that only produce 1400 bottles a year. There's a human touch in the variations in tastes from year to year, a natural influence of changes in the rain, sun and wind over the seasons. Flavors come from infinite variables like types of yeast, what kind of oak was used in the barrels and what the weather or soil is like where the grapes grew. Scarcity often adds to a wine's appeal, but it's a fact of life for smaller producers. There definitely is incentive to step outside of the "safe" wines that you see on every restaurant menu. "When a category becomes popular," says Gerhard, "a lot of dreck is produced. Unfortunately, the markets are quick at picking up on 'latest things.'" But you don't have to spend a lot on wine or be ultra-serious to enjoy it. "We have a lot of wines that are good wines, at affordable prices," says Gerhard. "When drinking wine, you can go just as far as knowing whether you like or don't like something. Or you can go farther and start to learn why you like it and where the complexities of the taste come from."
 Some of the countries represented at Fine Wine Brokers include the usual suspects like France and Italy, but also Spain, Australia, South Africa, Chile and the US. Australia, which is one of the fastest growing wine markets, is well represented, as is California, which produces 60% of the wine in the US. "Wine is coming out of a lot of unexpected places right now," says Gerhard. "Washington State and Oregon have emerged as excellent producers. All 48 contiguous states now have at least one commercially licensed winery." In the US today, small wine producers tend to fall into two categories. Either they are small mom and pop farmers who, instead of potatoes, have decided to produce wine, or they are wealthy people who decide that it would be fun to own a vineyard. "There are a lot of big egos in this industry," laughs Gerhard.
Compared to other places in the world, the US has never been a wine-drinking culture. As we produce more and better wines here, however, this is starting to change. The popularity of the movie "Sideways" is surely a sign of this shift. "I think part of the appeal of that movie was that the main character was an ordinary American guy," says Gerhard. "He could have been slugging back a case of Miller, but instead he had a passion for wine." Gerhard works hard to counteract the feelings of intimidation that people experience around wine. "People often approach me with a sense of trepidation," he says. "There is nothing wrong with asking basic questions. Wine is not just for geeks or weird people. It's a civilized drink that can be enjoyed either on a complex level or just as a tasty beverage." Fortunately for the wine novices, there are a few good books to start off with. Gerhard recommends The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, and believe it or not, Wine for Dummies. One of the best ways to start is by learning the geography of winemaking, or the ancient alchemy of why certain wines come from certain places.
Another way to learn more about wine is by testing it out yourself, which you can also do at Fine Wine Brokers. The shop features about two tastings a month on focused areas of wine. Some are formal while others are more relaxed; some Gerhard leads and for others, he brings in guest winemakers. The tastings are not always about wine, either, since Fine Wine Brokers carries a small selection of handcrafted beers, ciders, scotches and cordials. If you're interested in attending, call 773.989.8166 to make a reservation, as the tastings fill up quickly. Next time you need a bottle of wine for a dinner or a meal at a BYOB restaurant, visit Fine Wine Brokers to drink something memorable. "We're not too serious, we try to be pleasant and we have fun with wine," says Gerhard. "Wine makes the world go round."
Fine Wine Brokers, Inc.
4621 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.989.8166
Hours:
Tuesday through Friday -12:00pm to 7:30pm
Saturday -10:00am to 6:30pm
Sunday -12:00pm to 4:00pm
Closed Monday
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