Before the wind starts to blow cold off the lake and your eyeballs want to crack and fall out of your head from cold, Chicago has a lovely fall with temperate days and exciting, dramatic thunderstorms. Perfect weather, if you ask me, for drinking wine and eating great food (if only to store up some fat for the winter that will soon fall like a cinderblock on the fragile and unprepared). Just in time, then, arrives the Chicago Wine and Food Festival, a three day extravaganza of top chefs, excellent wines, and a nice mix of celebration and education.

Taking place over the weekend of October 21st, the festivities include a Dom Perignon Champagne reception and Gala dinner; a very high end reserve wine tasting of some of Napa’s top Cabernet producers; and a day of food and wine tasting with cooking demonstrations and VIP wine tasting seminars.

To my knowledge this is the biggest wine and food event in the Windy City, and should be a pretty great event if it measures up to its billing (I’m not going and have never been, so if it sucks I hope someone will tell me). Regardless, like many events of this type, the proceeds go to worthy causes — in this case the Greater Chicago Food Bank and Pediatric Aids Chicago.

Chicago Wine & Food Festival
October 21, 22, and 23
Times vary by day. See the schedule for details.
The Peninsula Hotel and Kendall College
Chicago, IL

Tickets vary in price, but the main public event on Sunday will run you $80. See the official web site for complete information and pricing.