oENOlogy - Chicago, Illinois

Oenology is defined as the study of all things wine. The word itself is derived from the Greek – oinos for wine and – logos for speech.  Which I find mildly amusing considering how wine can affect one’s speaking abilities profoundly. But I digress. While I was staying at the most lovely Hotel Inter Continental in downtown Chicago, I was most excited to visit their onsite wine-cheese-chocolate bar Eno (danger Will Robinson!) the shortened of oEnology.

Upon entering the smell is something reminiscent of cherries and port, with a sharp twang of dairy. The smell enveloped me and pulled me even deeper into the gastronomical voyage. It smelled GOOOOD!  The seating is what they called “open,” meaning that you find seats and sit wherever you can, possibly at the table with strangers. We found three open seats up at the bar and plunked down. The interior is somewhat like 21^st century French pub-charcuterie-café. Dark, a variety of seating groups. The tables have lit insets of different names of wine. Of course candles. It was quite cozy with a twist of hifalutin (but in a good way). The staff was quick to make on feel at home. We were immediately handed a LARGE wine/beer menu, and the barkeep suggested choosing a wine and  she would recommend a cheese flight to go with it.

They serve wines by the bottle, glass of flight. A flight is a tasting set. It has three different varieties all equaling a regular serving. I chose a single glass of an Inama Carmenere “Piu,” Veneto, Italy,( something I’ve always wanted to try) and we took the Oenoligists recommendation of a cheese flight trio called Bella Bella; which included Robiola Bosina, Fiore Sardo DOP, and Tesun al Barlo along with a bowl of Marcona almonds, grapes, baguette and fruit-bread slices and a blackberry mostarda (really tasty preserves).

All three cheese hail from Italy. The Ribola is a smooth creamy blend of sheep’s and cows milk from Northern Italy; The Pecorino was a hard sharp nutty sheep’s milk cheese from Sardinia; and the Testun, arguably the prettiest of the three, also a sheep’s milk cheese from the Peidmont region of Italy is coated and aged in the crunchy wine pressing leftovers (i.e grpaes skins…mmmm) was a creamy white with a lovely purple coating.

First I smelled the wine. Nice. Heavy, with a sweet aroma of cherries (“Ah this is why this place smells so good!” is what I thought to myself). I tried the Testrun first, just because it was so pretty. Nice. Smooth with a slight sharpness, and a delicious grapeiness. FYI- the seeds are still in the winey “crust but they really just add to the texture. Next I moved to the perorinao, which I have tried before. It is sharp, and not really my favorite. The final cheese, resembled a brie, which has been my reigning favorite chees for some time. I took a slice of baguette, smeared some of the ribola, and topped with a shmeer of the mostarda, with a whole intact blackberry. Now, I have never doubted that the right wine paired with the right cheese would be a pair matched in heaven; but, I was not prepared for the amazing melody the Robiola, mostarda and my Carmenere would play in my mouth. It was as though the three of them were separated at birth. I was torn between alerting my compadres to this magic and keeping silent and hogging up the whole thing. But, I decided this was a joy that had to be shared, so I alerted them to the combo, and they were in full accordance.