Wine Down

By Lisa Arnett
October 2024 View more Discover

Where to select your next bottle of vino

Geneva Wine Cellars and Tasting Room

227 S. 3rd St., Geneva

With its stone walls, winding rooms, and subterranean location in the historic Berry House in downtown Geneva, it feels like an old European wine cellar. You can buy wine by the glass or bottle to bring home or sip on the street-level patio space. Because owner Al Buchanan—an attorney and lifelong wine aficionado—is a self-described Francophile, you can expect a wide collection of French wines at all price points, plus options from U.S. and foreign wine-producing regions. “We have some incredible boutique wines, limited-production bottles, and tons of organic wines,” says Liz Kowal, the shop’s wine buyer. “Small producers, women producers—things you would definitely not find at big-box stores.” Kowal is a certified sommelier; when she’s not here at the shop, you’ll find her teaching wine courses at College of DuPage or judging national wine competitions. Ask to hear more about her favorite Sicilian wines or Special Club Champagnes, a premiere designation for bottles from an elite group of Champagne growers.
Good to Know: Weekend events include international tasting flights and 10 percent off any two bottles from a designated varietal or region.

SixtyFour – Wine Bar & Kitchen

123 Water St., Naperville

Known around town for its wine dinners and riverside patio, this Water Street restaurant and bar is not to be overlooked for its robust retail section. The owners, longtime Wheaton residents Loren and Amy Beadle, fell in love with wine during their travels to the world’s top wine regions, from Napa to Tuscany to Champagne. They stock about 800 different wines here, and at any given time you can sample 64 of those bottles at digital wine stations that dispense by-the-glass pours starting at one ounce. “Our key message is taste before you buy,” Loren says. “We change those 64 wines by about 10 to 15 percent every week, the idea being that if you come in every month, you’re highly likely to see completely different wines in the wine stations. And one of our stations is always designed to carry a wine you’ll never see by the glass, ever.”
Good to know: A typical approach for wine dinners is for the chef to start with the food menu and then select wine pairings to match. “Here we do things differently,” Loren says. “We select the wines first and then challenge our chef to pair food to those wines.”

Cabernet & Company

434 N. Main St., Glen Ellyn

At this wine shop just steps from the Glen Ellyn Metra station, you can pick out bottles to bring home or uncork at the communal table. Owner Alixe Lischett has operated the store since 1993 and stocks the shelves with domestic and foreign bottles from both well-known producers and smaller boutique wineries. “We do everything we can to take the intimidation factor out of it and make wine very approachable,” she says. Instead of hosting multicourse wine dinners, she prefers to partner with local diners and bars for a wine-pairing breakfast or lunch. “We will pick a ridiculously expensive winery and pair absolutely marvelous wines with burgers…or steak and eggs, and it is much more cost-effective for people.” Because her regular customers favor red wines year-round, you can expect to find plenty of Cabs and Pinot Noirs hovering around $20. Don’t forget to say hello to the shop cat, Gina, during your next visit.
Good to know: The store hosts a twice-yearly wine tasting event called Wine Thing in April and October.

Photos: Geneva Wine Cellars; SixtyFour – Wine Bar & Kitchen; Cabernet & Company