Midwest Culinary Institute: Grgich Hills Wine Dinner

When we walked into the Midwest Culinary Institute, we weren’t sure just what to expect. We were excited at the thought of a Grgich Hills Estate Wine Dinner at The Summit Restaurant, but we certainly didn’t realize just how special and delicious of an event it would be.

When we walked into the Midwest Culinary Institute, we weren’t sure just what to expect. We were excited at the thought of a Grgich Hills Estate Wine Dinner at The Summit Restaurant, but we certainly didn’t realize just how special and delicious of an event it would be.

The restaurant was a-buzz by the time we got there and we quickly figured out that the first thing to do was – get a glass of wine! (Uum, of course.)  For those of you who know us personally, you may not believe this but we suddenly found ourselves shy.

Yes. We were shy.  At first.

Grgich Hills

But as the evening unfolded, wow were we surprised and impressed.  And we became, well, less shy.  And then we cornered Glen, the wine rep from Grgich Hills and asked him question after question.  We caught some of it on the Flip. Check out the quick video below. We learned quite a bit about wine making, the conditions of the soil, geography, process in which the wine is made, and all kinds of other good things. In the end, we walked away more than impressed by Grgich Hills’ philosophies, and their entire operation.

I have to say that I have had the opportunity to travel to Napa several times, I have been on many of the wine tours at the amazing wineries, and actually thought I knew a bit about wines. Well…either I forgot what I had learned in the past or our friend Glen is just that good, because I sure feel like I learned quite a bit at the Midwest Culinary Institute that night. We got to taste so many of the delicious wines and each one of them affected us in a different (but GREAT) way.  A huge thanks and a shout out goes to Glen who was a good sport.

Wine Blog

Of course I bought a few of the bottles of wine (I didn’t want the fun to end there) and am excited to sit outside and enjoy them during the long summer nights. And my interest in wine has continued to be piqued. To quench this sudden thirst to know more about wine and all of it’s nuances, I have turned to fellow LOL Blogger Michelle Lentz at wine-girl.net and might I say, this girl knows a thing or two. I couldn’t pick just one blog entry to recommend to you as she really covers some ground.  Be sure to check it out.

P.S. As an aside, MCI puts these wine dinners on each and every month. We highly recommend it. Learn more about The Summit Restaurant here.

P.P.S. As I mentioned in an earlier post, at first it was hard for all of us to sit down and stay seated all night. We are just not used to NOT being the people who are doing the cooking and the serving. We got over it though.  Be sure to check out the food photos of the incredible meal at The Summit restaurant. I mean, in-cre-dible.